I have none of the problem you talk about. Honestly I laid me spin flat on the floor at the end of the season and saw zilch damage.
Then consider this :
I use :
A plain midpole snuffer with a alu ring. Sailbag is a slighly thinner mylar sail cloth than your mainsail.
Single line retriever with a hard outer mantle 4 mm dyneema line.
3 patches in my spi and it is folded back to a tube of only 2 mtr length. My luff is 8.3 mtr.
A normal plain spinnaker nylon spi. No silicone spi or special cloth. Just the cheapest rip stop nylon you can have
The last time I used sailkote or whatever lubricant was 4 years ago to help my mainsail go up in the track. Never used it on a spinnaker. I never used any lubricant on my spinnaker.
There was friction in the system at the beginning but than I found that a small block guiding the retrieval line was the cause not the snuffer system
I never snuff a spi while going upwind or even on a reach. I never understood that some sailors do. I found that the easiest and relative quickest way is to undercut the C-mark than bear off while pulling the retrieval line tight and when down uncleat the spi and pull it in with a3 or 4 good pulls. in the mean time the boat luffs and teh cat is in the bag before you reach a beam reach course. This should be timed with rounding the marker.
I layed my spi out on the floor and have used it several times this season and there is no marks of any kind not even near the patches.
The only reason I can think off that could cause this is the the alu snuffer ring. It seems to allow he spi to enter the snuffer more smoothly and doesn't seem to heat up under friction. Most of the time my spi is already halve bundled together when the she reaches the ring so there is not much line dragging over the cloth.
I agree a hooter is easier, but I in my case I can not concur the massive use of lubricant or raggy spi after a single race or a single season. From my F18 sailing I can tell you that my current snuffer is way better than the plastics rings. Was cheaper as well. My lucky break !
Wouter
