Ahh, good point, not tipped it in yet with the kite up.

Wayne and I have had this conversation at least twice before so I'm not really sure what the problem is. Yes, I will capsize with the kite up but once I get to stand on a hull I will just undo the Spi halyard cleat situated on the front beam and pull the kite down from here. Basically, the downhaul will pass around one pulley then up through the snuffer. There are no major difference and there would be even less of a difference if somebody opted for a single line system with the snuffer over the tramp as you could pull the kite down between the uphaul cleat and back to back pulley.
Also, in the past becuse of the extra drag trying to pull a kite back into the snuffer whilst trawling half the Bay with it, I have often found it easier to uncleat the halyard walk up towards the snuffer mouth and physically drag the kit up out of the sea and shove it down the snuffer by hand. Doing it this way IMO takes a lot of the loads off the pole, halyards, fittings etc.

Hi Wouter, please find attached a sketch of my 2 line spi system. I hope this helps you understand what I've been on about. It looks a bit confusing at first but I'm sure you'll see the logic, the tweaking issues have been the right amount of tension in the bungee take up and the correct line lengths on the spi patches. Apart from this the system works really well.

Yes stuffing the spinnaker in is the way to go, but for myself who is a fat 92 Kilos ( now 95 kilos after the recent ski holiday )+ the wet spinnaker, the last time I tried walking up the bow to stuff the spinnaker in, the bow went under and I ended up swimming. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Anyway try it first and see what you think, one thing is for sure it does ease the loads whilst snuffing and for whatever reason launching seems easier.

Good to see another sailor at 92 kilos, i thought i maybe the heaviest. But i was wondering if people had a view on performance of the F16 with the heavier weights and what wind speeds would the heavier person beat the 85 kilos guys on the beat or the run.

In my experience, weight can really help in sailing the F16 uni in conditions above 14-15 kts. Paul K and I sailed against each other in identical boats in a variety of conditions, him at 140 lbs and me at 185+lbs. He had the edge in lighter conditions, but by the time I was fully trapping I had a slight advantage. Having said that, I was always amazed at how even we were due to the tunability of the platform. Even downwind--he could be trapping and I sitting on the hull, both dead even in speed. Of course I usually could squeak a win out by using some wily tactics <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thats the difference 20 kilos makes on a capsized platform <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The spinnaker is the great equalizer. Crew weight is now much less important then it used to be.

I run at 90 kg at the start of the season and 85 kg at the end of the season.

Wouter

One very proud owner and another proud designer/builder in the background.

One proud owner and another very proud John Pierce designer/builder in the Stealth background.

I am pleased to hear that, as i hate losing because of weight as opposed to sailing skills.

"See MarkP has kept option of carrying bigger kites with his adjustable track on new boat --- or praps smaller if Nessie gets usual bout of wind !"
The idea behind the tracks is that the kite is 3m bigger than the mainsail, 15m bigger than the jib and yet has few means of sail trim, halyard length for luff tension and sheet tension for angle of attack and leach tension.
With the tracks I can pull them back in light winds to flatten the sail and open the leach to point higher for additional speed and in the higher winds put them forward to give a fuller shape and thus go lower but not slower.
The idea of procuring a wardrobe of kites for different conditions had never occurred to me. However, I think I would just end up wallet less with three times the amount of Kite repair tape in the sail box.

Post deleted by RickWhite

There's a 50/50 chance of me seeing Nessie. I'm not a big lover of Long Distance Races due to the fact I have failed to get a finish in everyone that I have competed in and caused £'s worth of damage. RTI twice (I went through mainsail once, grounded and damaged crossbar on the other occassion), Pwllheli once (Colin went through mainsail). I also tend to get frustrated after the first hour and everyone is spread miles apart. I'm sorry about the moaning as I confident the social side would make up for the 12hr drive. I'll have to see how things pan-out over the next month or two.
Keep on pestering me and you never know, the wife hasn't stopped for the past couple of weeks and I'm in the middle of painting the spare room as we speak: Outside is near perfect sailing/beer garden conditions <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

First decent sail today (less mistakes made). First over the water beating a Tornado, I20, F18, F16, Hurricane and Dart18. The second race I was leading but made a couple of tactical errors on the second beat allowing the T & F18 to pass. However, might have just beaten the T on corrected time <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> The wind was approx 8mph and oscillating a fair bit.

Mark and Scooby,

we have now tried the above tramp snuffer bag system on the Tornado. There was just room for it under our selftacker track, so we went ahead and tested it. Big improvement to the block under tramp or largish grommet in tramp solutions when it is time to douse. We really like it.