Things to do and not to do flying a spin

I also posted this on the beach cats

Would like to put together a list of things never to do and things to always do when flying a spinnaker.

We have 5 new to the sailors on the beach spinnaker boats. None have flown spinnakers yet.
2 Hobie Tigers
3 Nacra F18
1 Nacra 20

Would greatly appreciate any help putting this list together.

PS We had 22 boats out on the 4th of July

I assume all the boats have snuffers? Mid pole or the old school end of the pole toilet seat?

Make sure they bear off to nearly dead downwind before they hoist, and hoist as fast as humanly possible to keep the kite out of the water!

On the drop, again bear off but not as deep or the sheets might wrap around the snuffer hoop and jam up the works, and don’t release the halyard until you’ve got the retrieval line in hand ready to pull and again, snuff as fast as humanly possible to keep the kite out of the water.

Shrimping is slow.

When flying the kite, be ready to quickly bear off and ease the sheet with every gust, and keep your weight near the back of the boat or you will stuff the low bow and go swimming. You have to sail looking back over your shoulder for the next puff and be ready to bear away quickly when it hits. Keep the kite trimmed so the luff is just about to curl, constantly ease and trim to keep it in the groove.

Apparent wind is what you want to generate so once the kite is up, sheet in and slowly head up to build speed, once you accelerate ease the sheet and then slowly bear off as the boat accelerates to keep the apparent wind in the sweet spot, just forward of 90 degrees. Oh, and open the jib up so the jib slot isn't choking off the backside wind flow. You don't want the jib flapping, but eased enough so the airflow through the slot is smooth.

Mast rotation and down haul?

Mast all the way out, down haul off.

But do NOT let the main sheet go slack, keep it pretty snug, it is the backstay and it is the only thing working against the pull of the spinnaker halyard to keep the mast from snapping under the spin loads.

The apparent wind should be about 90 degrees off the bow so the main can stay sheeted in and fairly flat, ease the traveler down a foot or two, more if it’s really blowing and way out just before you jibe, but do not let the main sheet get slack when the spin is up and pulling.

[quote=
. The apparent wind should be about 90 degrees off the bow so the main can stay sheeted in and fairly flat, ease the traveler down a foot or two, more if it’s really blowing and way out just before you jibe, but do not let the main sheet get slack when the spin is up and pulling. [/quote]


I was following the Beach cats thread but missed this one.

Could someone explain why the traveler should go way out before the jibe? Thanks.

I never let the traveler out in jibes. In fact the only time I touch it is if we're over-stood heading into a gate or finish.

Also - apparent wind moves forward of 90deg once the boat gets going in anything more than about 7-8kts of wind. In lighter air, the 90deg rule of thumb works reasonably well.

In heavier air, it is extra important to keep the speed up in the jibes. If you slow down too much and the apparent wind goes aft of 90deg, the boat gets prone to pitch poling.