I was crewing on an H20 yesterday and had the opportunity to sail with a spinnaker for the first time. Besides the fact that the boat hauls rump once the sail is hoisted, it was a lot of work. Could someone give me some clues as to how I should be trimming? The skipper was doing to usual steer up for power then down for VMG and even lower to depower. We got on some really good runs, but every now and then the spinnaker would collapse. What is the best way to get the sail full again? Should I be trimming or easing when it collapses?

-Rob V.
Panama City
Nacra 5.2 (Hobie 20 crew)

The best way to fix a collapse is to not let it get there in the first place. Unless the boat is simply pointing to high, it takes about three feet of sheet to reel in a collapsed chute whereas about 6 inches would do if the collapse is caught just as the luff is beginning to curl agressively.

Once the spinnaker has collapsed you just start reeling in spinnaker sheet as quickly as possible. If you are trying to reel it in but run out of sheet before the spinnaker is full, the boat is pointing wayyyy to high....sometimes it's necessary to try and point this high in distance racing but rarely should it happen around the cans (unless you've sailed too far from a mark or the race committee was late dropping c-mark and put it 1/2 way back up the course!).

you really have to work with your driver to get spinnaker running down to an art.

Watch the luff of the sail. You want it to be just barely curling. Let out enough sheet to make that happen but just stay focused on that luff. If it curls too much it will collapse. If it starts to curl too much then pump that sheet once to get the curl out. After you trim, if you can't get the chute to re-fill, that means you're driving to high and you either need to drop the chute or steer down some.

Also another thing, if the boat starts to heel to much, don't let the chute out, let the driver steer down. (unless theres a boat below you on the course )

There are two ways the spin will collapse, the most common is from pointing too high and you just can't trim it in enough. That's the easy one to correct. The other one, and one you may have been experiencing if it's your first cat ride with the spin, is when you are screaming along on a reach, and get hit with a gust, the skipper immediately heads down (or had better, lest you swim) and the spin collapses, because now you are "over trimmed" for the new lower angle.

As the skipper quickly bears off, the trimmer has to ease the spin to keep it going, but alot of times, when a quick gust hits, you may want the spin to collapse or you will stuff it and swim. In that case, once under contol, you ease the spin sheet considerably, get it drawing, then trim it for what ever angle the skipper wants to sail.

You can also collapse it by going too fast, as when you are surfing down a wave, going deep downwind, no amount of trimming or easing will re-fill it untill you slow down a little! But when it re-fills, be sure the mainsheet is tight or the mast may snap forward.