I posted this over at sailing
anarchy, but I'm reposting here to get some different perspectives.
I'd like to improve the clew attachment for the spinnaker on a Nacra Infusion. At present I have a continous sheet, with the port sheet tied to the clue, running back to blocks on the tramp, across the tramp to the starboard blocks, around the forestay and then tied to the spinnaker clew. This set-up is serviceable, but there are two bowlines tied around the clew. In some wind conditions the bowlines will get caught on the forestay momentarily as I go through gybes.
I have seen some other F18s at regattas who have modified their sheets so that there is an ~1ft tail that ties to the clew, there is then a Y-split spliced to the tail that splits off and goes to the port/starboard blocks. The spliced Y-split can easily run along the forestay during gybes without getting caught on anything. I'm not sure what sort of splices are invovled with this, so if someone has some suggestions and pros/cons, they'd be most welcome.
Another alternative that was suggested is to have the tails of my sheet be some thin dyneema/specta (by splicing ~1-2ft of spectra to the ends of my existing sheets). Knots tied in the thin line would be much less bulky, so there'd be very little to catch on the forestay. What do people think of this idea?
Thanks