Hello F16 users , I have some questions regarding the use of spinnakers when sailing one up.
Firstly as a non spi sailor and usually with only 2 up experience it would seem to me be a handful looking after all the usual stuff plus hoisting and retreiving and sailing with the spi, how do you guys go about it all?.
Secondly what if you capsize with it up do you need to retrieve it (can you retrieve it) before righting.
Thirdly is their a wind limit where you would just go wild downwind rather than hoisting.

My apologies if these have been discussed before.

Cheers, Phil

Phil

1.) You need a snuffer, I just point the boat downwind, drop the tiller, do the hoist or the drop then grab the tiller again and off, shouldn't take more than 10 seconds, I did see a post about someone putting a bungee and clip on the tramp to clamp the tiller in a straight line, that looked like a good idea.

2.)When, not if you capsize you need to retrieve the kite before you bring her back up, again much easier with a snuffer.

3.) The time to leave the kite alone is when there is just too much wind to hold it, if it's going to pitchpole you forget it other than that you will allways be quicker with the kite, I guess if the leg is under 90 seconds I'd not bother either, but if the conditions allow wild thing under main only you will be loads quicker with the kite

Thanks John,
I thought you'd have to let go of something!, ever had any trouble with round up or congestion at the top mark interfering with the seting of the spi. Also you mentioned nosediving with the kite whereas I thought they usually lifted the bow?
Anyhow sounds like fun to sail in the right conditions.

Thanx, Phil

If you want to see a cat pitch pole with a Kite go to
http://www.catsailor.com/gallery/
and look for the purple and white spinnaker. They are in a series so look at them in order.(it was taken at Kurnell cat club southern side of Botany Bay Sydney Australia in 1986 with bullit gusts from 8 knots suddenly hitting 29 knots)

Sorry, then go to "users gallery" and klick on "AO14"

Go to the Mosquito webpage and read up on they write on soloing the spi.

These guys have advanced most on this solo issue :

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mosquito/

or directly to the how to steer and pull-retreive the kite topic :

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mosquito/sp_sailing.htm

These guys seem to prefer to keep the tiller between the back of their lower legs and buttocks and steer by rolling on their feet with both hands free for the spinnaker.

See picture :



Wouter

Phil,

Good input from John P, as always. But here's another thing to keep in mind: the sails are powerful steering devices. With the spinnaker up, you'll be pulled downwind; sheet in the main and drop the spin, you'll automatically round up. In fact, you'd be fighting these forces with the tiller. So steering with the sails also helps. Just another thought...

Phil,
I just trialled a system that seems to work rather nicely.

I have my kite rigged the same as shown on the Mossie web site. That allows easy deployment of the spinnaker when either sloop of Uni rig.

When the halyard/downhaul line goes under the tramp near the rear beam but before it goes into the shuffer sock it have sewn two sheaves to the bottom of my tramp.
I have another attached to the a bungee chord that goes tru a saddle with a ferrel to the centre of the tiller cross arm.

The downhaul line goes below the tramp thru the first sheave sewn to the tramp then the one on the bungee and then the next sewn to the tramp.

The way it works.
Normal sailing the bunge is lose and does not influence the movement of the tiller.
When you go to drop the kite and tension the pull down the bungee attached to the tiller is tensioned holding the tiller centre while the kite comes down.

It works the same going up but does not put as much tesnsion on the bungee.


Normally when you rig a kite some slack is needed in the halyard so you can get a good armful of line when pulling the kite up of down.
This setup above has an added bonus of removing some of the needed slack halyard off the tramp.

Thought I'd mention it because it is just another way to make single handing with a kite a little easier.

On the issue of making things easier.
When the kite goes up the mast needs to rotate. If you don't get good rotation it looks very unstable even with the main sheet tensioned.

Rotate it and your safe. I have a system that automatically forces positive rotation as soon as the rotation line is eased. I've also given up on dual cleats for the rotator.
Single RF5 with twin tail means you can never go around the bottom mark and realise you didn't cleat the other side of your rotation spanner.

These are little things that I personally find make life easier when single handing with a kite.

Regards,
Phill