so you're advocating staying in and going "deep" as opposed to getting out on the wire?

You can trap out and still sail on two hulls, as you can sit in and sail on one.
For me being out in trapeze means the ability to have the apparent wind more from forward, which means faster boat speed for same course to the true wind, but not more pressure on the bow.
On my boat the noses dive only in the accelerating phase, if I or my crew sheet in to fast, or if I bear away to fast, but not in the top speed phase. The best way to avoid violent bear-away is to be in the trapez .

But this could be different on different boats of course.

Cheers,

Klaus

Well Terry, "It Depends".

When sailing two up, with enough wind, I would probably put at least the crew out on the wire, but when sailing Uni, I have found it easier (more stable and less likely to swim) to sail deeper sitting on the tramp, way at the back of course, it just makes for one less thing to go wrong when it comes time for the jibe or to snuff if you are already on the tramp vs. out on the wire.

I did watch Matt and Gina sail away from me going lower and faster downwind where they were both in on the tramp and I was going higher/hotter on the wire, and that's when I decided to give it a try.

BUT...(there's always a butt, right?) as mentioned above, if you need to get up to make the mark, then by all means, get out on the wire.

Well, faster or not, this just looks bad butt.

Nobody is debating that it IS faster, if you measure pushing the boat through the water only, it will go faster if you wire, no doubt.

The debate is, will it get you downwind to C mark faster?

Not if you are swimming. So you had better work on coming in and gybing -cleanly- if you want to make it pay off.

Karl and other uni-trappin-spin flying peeps -

I saw a picture (cannot find it now) of a single handed set up that had a 57mm Harken block with 8 inches of dynemma tether to the rear beam (below the tramp and came out through a grommet on the tramp). The spin sheet went through this block on its way around the boat (obviously the two bitter ends were tied to the spin clew on each side).

The idea was to have the sheeting angle be more perpindicular to the hull rather than pulling you forward along the hull. Would that set up make trapezing with spin up easier? Is it worth it?

It seems as though it would make a huge difference.....

Question is wether the problem with going downwind with spi is staying in position or manouvering. Doing a quick risk evaluation manouvering (gybing, coming in, going out etc) is time consuming one-up and prone to going awry. Only way I can see to handle that is time in the boat and specific training for good routines (doing drills).

The yellow spi in the pic sure was loaded. Look at the seams and how the cloth is stretching. A spi built from more panels would stretch less. Could be important, but not if the driver is going to loose 10 boatlengths gybing

If you look at Karls picture, you will imagine that the angle actually is not so much different with such an layout. The purpose of such a layout is to keep the trampoline clean: The spin sheet is always ready to grip. This is something which makes your spinnaker manoeuvre faster, probably faster than trapping out... and helps to keep the spin sheet out of the water.

Cheers,

Klaus

I've found this layout to be a bit "unresponsive" on the spi' sheet ... and I've never quite got the hang of which segment to grab.

Loaded yes. The rest is the fact that it is completely junk. 5 years old, not cared for at all, and used in some pretty hairy wind. There is zero krinkle noise when it is folded. Its crispness is long gone, and I'm too poor at the moment to replace it.

edit- Given the appropriate conditions I still think there is potential to be faster, (by which I mean get back down to the leeward mark in less time), if you trapeze. Its overcoming all the foul ups, because it definetely is more challenging getting in and out going downwind. I remember the same sensation of uncertainty the first time I trapezed going up wind. The first time I wired down wind, it was a grade A cluster. I'm not going to say that I can make the transition smoothly, or even remotely well, but I'm getting better, and much more confident in my movements. I'm not doing a regatta this weekend, but I think I'm still going to go sailing and work sepcifically on trapezing downwind, or more importantly gybing and getting in & out.

Grab the leeward A-B part to avoid spongy feel.

Cheers,

Klaus

I totally agree with Rolf on his point about Trap and Spi downwind sailing. It's fine for a blast but as for the more important races it is quite a high risk option. Recently I have spent quite a few hours practicing getting out,in and gybing from the wire. In fact I'm starting to get a good routine together which certainly helps when the there is a need to go on the wire downwind during Club racing (which isn't often due to windward/leeward courses). However, at our recent Nationals I was not prepared to risk going out on the wire as any mistakes seem to be multiplied for some reason.
I get the feeling that in Australia wiring downwind is common place even during the big events and that is fine as long as you're rivals are doing the same as then everybody is taking the same level of risk but I'm certainly not going to trap in an Open Event unless somebody else can prove you sail as fast and lower than not trapezing.
To date my tacktick compass tells me that I'm usually sailing 5 degrees higher when on the wire and probably a little faster so every thing apart from the mistake factor seems about equal.