In your opinion who makes the best system? It has been suggested to me that the Capricorn system that Robbie Daniels/ Jill Nickerson stocks is the best. Trey Brown thinks the Nacra system. I am only familiar with endpole systems and have only seen mid-poles. I know I don't want the hard tube. What about the mylar? bags vs nylon? They all seem to be priced about the same. Thanks!

I've got a mylar bag and can say that the stitching is coming undone....I'm keeping it together with duct tape until I can find time to properly repair it. Nice that the bag matches my main sail and jib, but would probably opt for the nylon bag if I had both choices now.

I just bought a ring and bag from stealth marine (maker of the Stealth F16). It's a nice aluminum ring with a mylar bag. I haven't installed it yet (I'm still waiting for the spi to come back from the sailmaker...). I've done a review of the setup on the cats sitting the parking lot at my sailing club and this looked like the best bang for the buck: it's a good design, and I got the ring and the bag for the price some charges (*cough*nacra*cough*) for just the ring...

Of course I think the Nacra system.

I've used the nacra's, tiger's, and the capricorns. I think the Tiger's snuffer is the smoothest. I'm pretty sure the Capricorn's is the cheapest though, it's comparable to the fiberglass Nacra snuffer but it's aluminum. You could easily get the snuffer from Robbie Daniels. The nacra's sock is pretty slick though.
I think Trey is probably slightly biased towards the Nacra.

http://www.gobarefootstudio.com/snu.html

Dennis Key in California is making a slick set up. He calls it a Spinnaker Nesting Unit. Three of us with Tigers have been using them here in the Northwest. Great results. I've had an 11 year old youth, and a 15 year old girl crew for me and they were able to hoist and douse with out problems. My 14 year old son crews for me regularly and has been able to compare the SNU to the Hobie factory soft bag. He prefers the SNU and it doesn't bunch up the sail during the douse.

Nice!
Snu: It's New!

Hey, that's a neat snuffer hoop. I haven't seen that before. If I weren't so pleased with my Nacra hoop on my F18, I would buy/build something like that. With the spinnaker dimensions on the N20 the same Nacra setup doesn't work nearly as well but I can't change that one and stay class legal.

Looks like a setup that is relatively easily homemade from a bare alu tube. Worth a try.

Wouter

For a mid pole snuffer I have not seen better than the one that Dennis has. Seems that there are many sailors in the area that are purchasing them. I would if I wanted midpole system.

Dan

Dan:

Anyone tried one on a Blade. Will I see you at the F-18's in Galveston?

Doug

Doug:

I am sure it would work. I do not know the size of an F-16 spinnaker but it works very well on the 21 square meter spins of F-18s.

Contact Dennis and ask for the details of how it is connected and whether it is designed for a specific pole diameter. I do not think so, but it is worth asking. Right now I have seen it on a Nacra and Tiger each have different pole diameters.

Dan

Did I miss the SNU price? I did not see it on the website.

$400 USD

The new Hobie mid pole snuffer for the Tiger works very well - we tested it tonight and the kite glides in and out. The opening is slightly larger and squarer than the Performance hoop we used on our old boat. The bag is a mesh design that drains very easily, and the bolt rope for the bag is a snug fit in the hoop - unlike the recent incarnations of the Perfomance design where the bolt rope seems to pull out at the back (not that it seems to make any difference to how well it works).

Time will tell how well the bag and hoop hold up - but first impressions are very positive.

Chris.

Thanks for all the input. I had heard about the new Tiger system, sounds great. Tempted to go with it instead of Nacras system. The capricorn system uses the same 40mm pole I need to repair my broken pole which would allow me to go mid or end pole. Changing to mid requires some additional hardware, so I most likely would never go back to endpole. Need to order soon as a race quickly approaches!

I just got an email from Dennis Key, the guy who sells the SNU snuffer. When asked the price he said, "The SNU, as
described on the web page, goes for $375 +tax and shipping. Thanks again for the feedback and I will add the price on the main page on the next update...."

Unfortunately, this Mastrom pole/snuffer is very expensive and made of carbon so shouldn't be used on F18's but it does look dead sexy.

Ahhh, the Welsh humor......

I had a chance to put the SNU from Dennis Key to the tough- test this past weekend on my FX-ONE. We did a 15 mile downwind race from Santa Cruz to Moss Landing. I sailed back Sunday and played the puffs along the beach where I had a chance to douse the chute about 50 times. It is the best one out of the three snuffer systems I've had on the boat so far. I feel like it was gentler on the sail, so I might get some more life out of the spi. It's light too--around 1#.