I have installed a spi 2 month ago and practice a little.

Last week we had a long distance race approximately 40 NM. The wind was from the
back SW 17 k , waves from the same direction 1.5 m , I
thought it should be classic for my spi but what a
disappointment… a H16 sailor I am used to win most of the
times took me over by far, he sails without spi…

I am trying to find out whether it is just me who have to
practice more or the H16 that is going better in these
conditions without spi?


Nir Maor
Israel

This may sound like a stupid question but over the years I still have not become completely farmiliar with all the terminology. What is a spi? Is it like an abreviation for spinaker?

Not too sure myself..but i'm guessing it's the spinaker...

I didn't know you could get spinakers for H16's. That sounds pretty neat though, I wonder how much they cost.

I've only had mine out for a couple of races but found that it was only really faster over a fairly narrow range of downwind angles, anything between a beam reach (90degrees from the wind) and a broad reach(130-140degrees) and we seemed to fly past the nearby boats without spinnakers(this was in fairly gusty F4-F5), anything deeper than that and it didn't seem to make a difference. great fun though either way

andy

The spinnaker is not class legal so what’s the point; you’re just playing with yourself.
Pun intended.

The Hobie 16 spi is the official ISAF youth boat at this time; thus hobie made it class legal in order to not loose this particular beneficial usage. Will be replaced by the SL16 in I think 2007 though. A purpose designed youth boat with spi.

Anyway, back to topic.

Sailing fast with a spinnaker is something you will have to learn. You can both sail too low and too high with a spi and indeed loose out to a boat without a spi that sails very deep. The trick to spi sailing is that you luff this your spi really powers up and makes the boat accellerate. Than you steer down in such a way that you keep your speed up but at much lower angle. Here you ride the boat so that you keep your speed up. If you make an error then you'll can fall off the groove and have to start all over again. In the beginning you will fall off the groove often. You really have to develop a feeling for the spi and boat so that you promptly make the right steering actions all the way down the downwind leg. If you do it right then you'll be continiously making S-curves; this is called snaking downwind. You can really see in the foam track you'll make how pronounced the S-curve can be, especially in gusty conditions. Also proper sheeting is very important, the crew must continiously look for the maximum curvature that doesn't allow the spi to collapse. If he or she does do that then he can quickly pull all the power out of the spi. Then sheeting out a little can make a big difference in the power and drive developped. the spi is certainly not a set and forget sail. Downwind sailing with a spi is many times more dynamic then downwind sailing without it. You are sailing with apparent wind coming from the side or even forward instead of it coming from the rear. If you are not continiously working the boat and spi then you will never reach the full speed potential.

In 17 knots of wind you should be able to sail the luff hull clear of the water for all time.

When new to spi sailing you'll often find that you are slower than a well sailing spi-less boat, however when you get better in optimizing the handling then you'll find that you can increasingly sail away from the old setups. In the end you'll leave them for dead.

Also practice on your hoist and douces alot. This is of a little importance the larger scheme of things but still alot can be won by doing it right and fast. Especially being able to hold the spi nearly all the way to the bottom mark can win you alot of time.

Sometimes, conditions can prevent the spi boat from reaching its maximum performance. This is nearly never the wind and nearly always the seastate. Example : One time we were racing in 1.5 mtr waves with a very short wave length, winds about 12 knots. The non-spi boats could surf a single wave all the down to the mark, while the spi boats just didn't have enough power to pass the waves. Actually you could if you sailed very high with the spi up but that killed downwind VMG. End result, the non spi boat could stay very close to the spi boats. Sometimes this happens, and then you just have to live with it. Although the non-spi boat were still faster around the course, we just suffered badly on handicap

Good luck.

Wouter

even if it wasn't class legal, not eveyone here has their boat just for racing, some of us just want to have fun. plus operating one that's not class legal would at least give you some experience for if you ever sail a boat in a race that can legally have one. Thanks to Wouter, though, now we know it is class legal. I have a question about the snaking downwind though. So each time you snake is the spinaker going to need to switch to the other side? If so, how do you make this transition?

Wouter,
According to all the reports I have seen, ISAF has chosen the Hobie 16 with spinnaker to be the youth boat for 2006 and 2007.

And where did you hear that the Hobie 16 with spinnaker has been made class legal? I can't find that anywhere. And what class would it be legal for? -- certainly not the Hobie 16 class. I would think the Hobie Class Association would have to establish a new class for the spinnaker version, which would fragment the existing Hobie 16 Class. So why would they want to do that?

the spinnaker is certainly legal in europe where it is usually raced as either a seperate class or on handicap with standard boats, i suppose depending on the numbers of boats.

as for snaking downwind the reason is, as you accelerate with the spi up the apparent wind shifts forward dramatically so you have to bear away to keep the spi filled, then if you slow down for whatever reason you luff up again to keep the power on. your not gybing as you do this so no need to change sides. you also have to do this in gusty conditions where you bear away to depower in the gusts

hope this helps
andy

I'm in the process of setting up a spi for my H16 and will try to rig the spi so I can roller reef it. I sail single handed and want to try the spi in low wind conditions.
My question is (I haven't seen my spi, arriving this w/e), is the luff straight enought to be rolled? will/may need modification to do this I might assume. Can the spi be used if the luff is modified to be kept straight and tight (so that it can be rolled)? All the photos I've seen with the H16 spi show a sail with more of a genaker shape - ie a straighter luff seemingly pulled tight.
Bottom line - I want to roll my spi and sail it like a genaker/hooter or whatever. Does anyone with experience with the H16 spi think this is possible?

Thanks to all

I have enough trouble handling my H16 single handed with two sails, adding the complications/power of a spinnaker, could make it a real nightmare by your self.

Let's make this perfectly clear (Wouter):

The 16 w/Spinnaker is NOT class legal on a general basis.

The wording from the International Hobie Class Association Class Rules:



I did not add the emphasis. It's in the rules.

Go here if you want to check it yourself.

I never wanted to say that the spi is CLASS LEGAL for the BASIC H16 class. Just that the H16 has a class legal spinnaker in its ISAF YOUTH CLASS setup. Which is a H16 class as well, at least many claim it to be such a thing. This youth class is certainly not a formula class or whatever.

The appendix that you quote supports this. Also the youths are not sailing ANY event without the spi. The fact that it is only authorized for special Youth events is just silly. These youths need to practise, right ? Overhere the teams seem to sail any open class event with the spi package.

In summary, the H16 design now has an official regulated spinnaker package that is supplied by Hobie cat corp. Although according to the hobie class rules only youths may use it. I would personally call such a thing "class legal". Others may see that differently; of course.

But hey ! why do the kids always get the fun stuff ?

I wonder what these kids will do when they turn senior and are faced with a choice between a spi-less (senior) H16 class or one of the other spi classes ?

Wouter