Today I was rigging my boat in some decent wind and having a bear of a time getting the spin sheets tied off with it flapping around. Typically I tie a bowline in both ends of the sheet where it connects to the spinnaker. With the wind and a couple of failed attempts to tie a bowline I gave up and just tied a stopper knot. Does anyone else do this? Seemed to work well enough.

Karl thats what I used to do on the F16.

yes. That's what I do all the time. I put the sheets through the grommet in the clew in opposite directions and tie figure eight knots in the end of each side of the sheet.

Switched to stopper knots last Thursday.

... how about the other end of the sheets - do you leave them open?

Continuous line, both ends figure 8 stopper knotted at spin clew.

Isn't learning things on your own fun!! Good to know that this is common practice, I will be switching as it is a whole lot easier when the wind is blowing things around on the beach.

The way we did it was tying the ends together with some "fishermans knots" on the trampoline and leave the sheet on the boat (mast up storage). Sheet had a pigtail in the middle of it made out of 4mm spectra, which we tied to the spi with a bowline knot. It was what the rest of the fleet also did. Works really well. Less weight at the clew in light winds, easier to jibe in my opinion and also cleaner.

when you get really good, you'll be able to string it up without hoisting it!

Rolf, I've seen a version of that, might study that a little bit. I have found that the bowlines get caught on the forestay and so far the stoppers do not.

yeah, but a bowline in 4mm spectra is pretty small.

The bowline part of the pigtail is not to get in contact with the forestay with this setup. We spliced and stitched the pigtail into the core of the spi sheet, and that is the part of the spi sheet which passes the forestay. In practice, the bowline knot sometimes had to slide over the forestay, but we never had any trouble with that.
We started out with tying the spi directly to the spi sheet, and that also worked, but not as painless as with the pigtail setup. Just my experience.

I took the 4mm spectra pigtail thing one step further, I spliced a small loop (about 3inches) in each end of a 3' peice of 4mm spectra, then I threaded one end of the spectra through the middle of my spin sheet (a single braid Mafioli type line, easy to pass the spectra through), passed it twice around the sheet and pulled the spin sheet tails through the loop, so it is locked in place. Then when I rig it to the spin, I pass the other end loop of the spectra through the clew, and pass the spin sheet ends through that, and pull all through.

There is not a knot anywhere foreward of the tramp and so nothing hangs up on the forestay or anything else in a jibe. The best part is, I have not cut or tied anything that cannot be undone without damage to any lines. Simply two spiced loops in a 3' peice of spectra.

Oh, I then tie the sheet tails together on the tramp, but I am also working on a spectra loop splice system to get rid of those knots as well.

That sounds very clean Timbo, but for us with mast-up storage the bowline on the pigtail sounds easier/faster? That is, if I understood you correctly.

I leave mine stored mast up, spinnaker fully rigged ready to go but it's in my backyard. If you want to take the spin off but leave the spin sheets in place, then yeah, the bowline would be quicker to undo vs. unrigging the sheets. I would worry about the bowline in the clew coming undone while racing, I guess I would tape it after I tied it, if I were using that method. That spectra is pretty slippery stuff and I don't trust knots with it, unless taped.

Right, there is the difference. We take the spi off but leave the sheets. Not that much UV at 63deg North so we can get away with that. Not much trouble with theft or "borrowing" either.
We never had the bowline undo on us, but we kept the nylon cover on the pigtail.

I've been flying over your house for the past several trips, over Bodo and some of the other places, seems the sun never sets this time of year!

I have flown over there too! AMAZING SIGHTS... i have "partied" above the arctic circle... very neat!

Coming out from a nightclub at 0300 into the sunshine is always nice <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> If you are leaving with company, it can be an eye opener though!
At our place, we have some hours of dusk now. Need to get north of the artic circle at 66' 33" to get proper midnight sun. I am currently at work in Vermont, USA, and it gets dark her way to early! Nice and hot though, perhaps too hot for me.

But this was supposed to be about spi sheets <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hey, I used to live up in New Hampshire, right next to Vermont, but it never got "hot". Come on down to Florida now, I'll show you hot. The lake water out back is 92F right now. Yeah, that's just the water. The Gulf of Mexico is about 83F I think, but it will warm up to the high 80's in July and August.