Wouter, I think we are agreeing with each other, Flappy spi in the big stuff when gybing just assists in the boat luffing up too quickly.

I always treat the kite as the top priority too, get it sheeted (even over sheeted if windy, us single handers do run out of hands compared to the 2 up boats) on the new gybe and then sort out everything else and get back out on the wire.

Guys, thanks for all that great discussion. And thanks for incorporating high wind spi gybing into the mix. It is interesting that there are different ways to skin the cat and it sounds like what works best may depend on specifics of sial/rig design and tuning, bow volume, hull length, etc.

Jerry

Use the fingers on your tiller hand to clamp the sheet against the tiller while you take another armfull. If your ratchet blocks aren't up to the job, put another set of blocks on the back of the front beam, and the run the sheet through them as well. Even if the front blocks aren't ratchet blocks, you've now got the sheet wrapped around about 1/3 of the ratchet block, which massively improves their grip. With a decent ratchet setup, you'd be surprised at the how little force is needed to hold a sheet with a significant load on it. If you want to be really sure, put ratchet blocks on the front beam too.

Paul

Like "Twice bitten" said

But Paul,

While double ratchets will make holding the sheet a piece of cake, they don't make sheeting in the spi any lighter !

I really do want to prevent a collapsing spi, bearing off is often not quick enough. I know this problem comes from a skipper steerage error but sometime while sailing in significant waves you just can't avoid it. In these instances I really like to use two hands and do so in a quick manner.

Wouter

Some people like to keep their halyard/retieval line as short as possible to keep things from getting tangled. Personally I like lines to run to the rear beam. That way you keep the weight in the back and stay withing easy reach of the joystick (some people use bungee to lock the joystick while hoisting). I use an autoratchet at the shrouds and a normal block on the frontbeam, for heavy air I use a sheet that has more grip to makes things easier.

I keep the traveller line on my lap and throw it to leeward before gybing, like Scooby I do the S-turn rolltack-like manouver. Also, I dont trapeze in high winds.

Okay Jerry,

You've gotten more than enough advice to get out there and GO FOR IT!

A related point--I try to sail the boat flat in truly heavy winds, rather than the usual approach of going "wild"; the extra buoyancy of both bows is helpful.

Man, I'm glad to hear that. I thought I was being chicken for calling my brother-in-law off the wire when it got hairy. Actually, I was being chicken. He was taking a beating anyway. I call it "tea bagging". Anyone else have a good term for this? In the gust he flies high, in the lull he gets dumped in the drink. Up, down, up, down, just like a tea bag.

-Rob V.
Panama City
Nacra 5.2

I had a crew with a minor cut on his finger while out on the wire...when he got dunked a few times I yelled that he had become a human chum line and the sharks were catching up!

Mike.

Rob, shhhhh! That's dinghy lingo.

The right term for it is :

"Not enough downhaul !"

Wouter

Eric, I'd love to just get out there and "DO IT" except for the minor technicality of my not having a spi at the moment - and it wouldn't make sense to add one to my H17 if I upgrade soon to an F16... That being said, I have learned and continue to learn so much from you guys which I know will make my first forays into spi so much more fun and productive. What great members this forum has!

OK, not to change to subject too much, but since the subject of tea bagging has been raised, I'd like to explore it a bit more. Specifically, when singlehanding in higher winds and waves (with or without spi) mishaps do occur (not everyone has or uses chicken lines or footstraps, and even with nonskid on the decks you can slip or a wave can wash your feet off the deck). So I'd like to hear about peoples techniques for recovery, not for just getting dunked while on the wire, but from losing foot contact with the boat while on the wire (maybe I should call that "tea dragging"... although it's not happened to me yet it's just a matter of time and I've been thinking about what the best way to recover would be. I would think that you would swing forward, especially if you bury a bow in a wave. If you just slip off it might be possible to hang onto the tiller and the mainsheet and head up into irons to reboard. If you swing forward too much I would think that you'd have to release the tiller and hang onto the mainsheet; maybe just sheeting in would also put you into irons or at worst capsize the boat so you could reboard. Of course the things I would really like to avoid are just getting dragged along by the boat at high speed in heavy air without the ability to head up into irons or getting bounced off the trap and having the boat sail away. So, lets hear peoples interesting stories of getting "tea dragged" and their methods for recovery and/or prevention as well as lessons learned.

Jerry

Plenty of stories but they're neither interesting nor fun to remind myself of.

I was solo on the wire in about 10 knots a few months ago and when I came in off the wire, I put my foot through my tramp. It was pretty scary for a moment while I prayed that my harness stayed connected. If it disconnected, I would have been drug behind the boat with my foot stuck in the tramp (like old west cowboy falling off a horse). I think HobieGary coined the best phrase for this: DUMBASS (Drug Under My Boat Automatic Sheeting System). So I guess the lesson is if you fall off, hang on to the sheet long enough to pull it block to block and hope that it either capsizes or comes around into irons. As for my situation, I built a new tramp.

I was crewing in moderate wind on a H20 and failed to COMPLETELY clip in (rushing around). I did the Nestea plunge. Luckily, I wasn't solo. It scared me, but when I am solo, I am much more careful about getting in and out of the wire.

As for teabagging, I've never been in prison so my definition is purely G-rated.

-Rob V.
Panama City
Nacra 5.2

Hi guys,


Interesting thread and discussion, if it's of any interest to anyone I've posted up a short video of me at Datchet last year. It shows a spinnaker hoist in about a Force 3-4 and a gybe. While I'm the first to admit it's not textbook stuff, you guys might find it useful as a term of reference for your comments

So go to it guys - I can take it!!!

spin work at Datchet

Nice video, John.

What do you do with the sheet going through the gybe? My current technique is to let the old sheet out as I go into the gybe, sheet in the new sheet as fast as possible as it gybes, swear as the kite clew knots get stuck around the luff of the kite, free them, sheet in some more, swear again as I discover that I'm sitting on the old sheet and can't sheet in properly, free the sheet and then finally sail off. It looks like you've got something a little more refined there ;-)

Paul

What kind of boat is that? Looking at the video, it's really not that windy.

Bob

Great video John !

Actually the gybe looks pretty good to me. You are keeping the spi drawing, hardly any flapping and certainly no collaps.

But it doen looks to me that you could have sheeted out while rounding the bouy and then have sheeted back in after the bear away and before hoisting the spi. The conditions seem stable enough for that and you will have won 3 seconds of the spi fully drawing. In the video you have the spi flapping and collapsing during this time (when sheeting in the main). In my experience those 3-4 seconds could have costed you a significant amount of covered distance.

But you did a nice hoist and you got some good speed there.

Wouter

Hi Bob,

No, it doesn't qualify as 'higher winds' per the title of this thread, but it's the only video I have. Winds when this video was shot on the Saturday of the Datchet meeting were F3-4 and there were a couple of capsizes in the 12 boat fleet. On the Sunday though speeds were up to F4-5 (mainly 5) and there were multiple capsizes and a couple of damaged FX1s from beaching while capsized. In this video the wind is more like a 3 than a 4 though.

Datchet is a concrete bowl (reservoir) with 60ft high sides. Usually the water is within a few feet of the top, but at this meeting (following a dry summer) the water was about 30ft down and as a result the water was very flat and the wind quite shifty. Good race meeting though.

The video was shot by Sue Davis - John_P's 'better half' using Aaron Young's camera. Aaron then very kindly sent me this clip. Nice of him and good work by Sue

BTW Bob, it's a Stealth F16 (earlier version).