OK, so I built a snuffer pole and tried it out this weekend, broke hoops first try, repaired, new setup worked but.... We kept having troublw with the sail catching in water and going under the bows. We were vary carfull to lower slowly as w pulled sail into the bag, so my question is, Where are the umbilical patches on your guy's sails? I tries putting 3 evenly spaced up the middle of the sail, should the bottom one be closer to the clew? Umm is there somethign you do to make the bottom patch start to go into the sack before the top patch gets too it?

On a lighter note, my website just got a facelift, bolsterd by the picture galler here on catsailor, and a lot of new pictures of my prindle, my freinds new prindle, and some group shots. Still missing some picts of some of the boats we have, but i have hope that my update will be as regulatr as they have been this last month.

>>having troublw with the sail catching in water and going under the bows. We were vary carfull to lower slowly as w pulled sail into the bag,


Slow is wrong. Right is

Pull retrieval line tight before uncleating the halyard
then pull (at least the first halve) into bag quickly with a few continious and quick pulls
Second halve may require some more force but by tis time the spi can nt go anywhere else and you can do it more gently although quick is always best.


>>so my question is, Where are the umbilical patches on your guy's sails?


All along the line going from top to middle of foot of spi.

Lower patch about 1 mtr of the foot (about 3 foot)

Top patch about 2 mtr from the top ( = just shy of 7 feet)

Middle patch is halve way in between these two.

This should work well enough and give you a spi that will snuff in a sack of only 2 mtr length.

Works for my spi and that is a 17.5 sq. mr. by 8 mtr luff spi. Should work okay for an F18 spi as well

Wouter

One other thing that needs to be taken into account if you are not using a tack line :

The distance from the top patch to the head of the kite must be less than the distance from the bottom patch to the tack (otherwise the sail will not go in the snuffler bag)

Josh,
Who builds those land boats.... That looks like an adrenaline rush!

Josh,
the best advice we got when learning to douse was never douse going downwinnd. It blows the chute forward and underneath your boat. Head into the wind a little and douse quickly. The wind will blow the chute back away from the bows.
We had problems getting the sheets tangled around the end pole hoop, ans this was also a solution.

David Mosley
Team SEACATS

Ohhhhh how I hated when the sheets wrapped around the pole

Arbo, the little alluminum landsailors with the terrible looking sails that you see laying on their sides are called Manta Twins. They are what we have, they're an out-of-the-box deal so that everyone has the same boat. Its nice because the old beat up ones that we have can still beat the new ones. The little one with the sail that looks like a windsurfer sail is called a Fed 5, they're faster than the mantas, but there are fewer. The big boats mostly come out of austrailia and new zealand i think, if htey aren't completely hand built. Umm, I'm not sure how you contact the manufacturer of the mantas, but there is some dealer info here http://www.nalsa.org/

It really is a blast, but not nearly as many events every year. No one else I've talked too but us uses them on the beach, partly why ours look beat up. But there are still fun on beach. Takes about 10 minutes to get used too if you have sailing experience, and then you could easily compete with the fastest guys out there, thats part of what makes them so fun.

If you have a dry lakebed close-by, this is a definate weekend toy.

Wouter, How do you get the first half in quickly, the way I have it set up hte line slips through the first two patches and ties to the top. Nothing will actually start into the hoop untill the top patch gets there, the other two will just sit on the top of the hoop untill the top patch gets there, have I done something wrong with the way the lines are tied?

Just do it quick. Stand up (if it is not too windy) and go for it.

Another tip to avoid errant sheets is to stand on the sheet till the sail is partly down and wants to be pulled into the snuffler

Another tip for errant sheets.
Look at the red line(spin sheet) and see how it is run to the rear crossbeam basically to keep it clean and out of the way. It generally runs thru a big block either on a short piece of bungee or a short piece of line.

No but this pyramid of cloth can be divided into two halves as well. get the first halve in quickly (The Top with the patches)

Wouter

I'm stunned at the "complexity" in the procedure...having never set/doused/sailed a spinny cat before, my crew & I hdid a whole regatta (6 races) of flawless sets/douses on my Tornado. This was with a mid-pole Guck Skunk snuffer. Never shrimped, run over with bow, wrapped a sheet. All we do is take up a little slack on the douse line, blow the halyard, snuff, snuff, snuff, then blow the tack line as sail is gathered in. Maybe on the T boat, things are less hairy cuz of the extra beam and the mid-pole setup.

Mike.

Mike,

You have a crew

Most of us are single handed !

I've also done a few spinny runs single handed...though it's tricker to steer, the sets/douses still go very smooth.

One thing I think might be different...our halyard/retrival ine is only just as long as it needs to be to have sufficient slack on the douse line so as not to distort the sail. Thus, when dousing, you really can't drop the sail too low without it going into the snuffer. I can see how you'd have more problems if this line has excess length.

Mike.

Mike,

The width of the T will halp.

I have to say that (touches wood) I have not had any problems in a long time.

It's just practice / practice / practice

The problem is the sail area that is to the sides of the patches, its just seems to slide under the hulls, even though the sail has started into the bag. I haven't gotten to re-try this yet, I have a suspicion that i was maybe being a little too gentle with it, it seems that I just need to pull for all I'm worth quick and I will get it in before I turn my sail into a shrimp net. I'll Try this again, i don't think i will make it out again for at least 2 weeks
things just keep coming up on weekends.

I will try and take some piccies of my Kite at the weekend ona 'test drop' on land if that is any use ?

As long as it's not too windy.....