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apply plenty of halyard tension, this is critical to the
furling ability of the sail. Hoisting the sail furled is a very
easy and safe exercise. Now that the sail is hoisted and
you have rounded your mark you can release the furler
lines and pull on the sheet, the sail will very quickly
unfurl and you are now sailing under spinnaker.
Depending on wind conditions and points of sail you
may choose to sail with the jib furled or unfurled. If the
jib begins to flog it should be furled quickly to avoid any
permanent damage to the sail.
Sailing with spinnaker
SPINNAKER JIBING
The asymmetric spinnaker can be jibed either through
the slot between the forestay and spinnaker tack or
around the outside. With ‘inside’ jibing the sheets
are run between the spinnaker tack and the forestay.
Outside jibing requires the sheets to be run outside the
spinnaker tack.
Inside jibing is probably the most common, as outside
jibing does have the risk of a sheet going under the
boat, though this is lessened using a continuous one
piece sheet. The advantage is that the sail does not
have to fit through a narrow slot between spinnaker
and forestay.
With inside jibing, the skipper should start turning
slowly while the crew eases the sheet to keep the sail
full. As the clew nears the slot or the spinnaker starts
to collapse, the new sheet should be quickly pulled in
to pull the spinnaker through the slot and around while
also releasing the old sheet.
The outside jibing procedure is similar with the crew
waiting until the clew reaches just in front of the
headstay and then pulling in the new sheet, with the
sail going around the outside.
In all cases it is very important that the skipper turns
slowly and then heads up to fill the sail before coming
to the right course.
SPINNAKER SAILING DOWNWIND
On first using an asymmetric spinnaker you may be
disappointed with downwind performance -unless you
take note of what is said here. The asymmetric cannot
match a full symmetric spinnaker straight downwind
because of the smaller, flatter area and a restricted
ability to project to windward. The major advantage
is considerably easier handling and superior reaching
performance.
A rotating mast is very efficient and can achieve a very
large performance increase over fixed masts making
downwind tacking a possibility.
The basic technique/rule is to sail downwind while
keeping the apparent wind at about 90°, trimming the
sails so
they are not stalling or luffing. The extra speed
generated will pull the apparent wind further
forward allowing you to go deeper and deeper while
maintaining a very high speed. Just keep the apparent
wind at around 90°. It can be tricky to get the right
angles, but if done correctly, the results can be
exhilarating. So try it! Flying the jib inside the spinnaker
may also help improve performance.
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