RS SAILING RS Cat 16, Owner'S Manual

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5.5 Sailing Downwind and Gybing
When sailing downwind, you could reduce the amount of downhaul on the
mainsail. Let the jib out to allow the tale tales to flow, the mainsail needs to be
reduced slightly in mainsheet tension and dropped down on the traveller.
Single-handed sailors should adopt a relaxing, reclined pose on the tramp.
To gybe, pull the tiller towards you and, as the boat starts to turn, step across
the tramp facing forward. Once the boat has completed the turn, pass the tiller
behind the mainsheet bring the tiller back into the centre before sitting down
on the new side, with the tiller extension behind your back. Often, the Sail will
not want to come across until you have nearly completed the gybe, so it often
pays to give the mainsheet a tweak to encourage the mainsail over at the
moment that you want it to come! Once you are settled, swap the mainsheet
and the tiller extension into the new hands.
5.6 Using the Gennaker
If you are inexperienced in using a gennaker, choose a fairly quiet day for
you first excursion. A gennaker nearly doubles your sail area, and should
be treated with a healthy degree of respect!
For your first hoist you should be sailing downwind on a broad reach, with the
wind coming over the helm’s left shoulder. The crew should sit in the centre of
the tramp, and hoist the gennaker by pulling the gennaker halyard from the
spinlock cleat on the front beam
The gennaker halyard pulls the tack of the sail to the outboard end of the
gennaker pole– when the gennaker is hoisted, you are ready to go. The crew,
or the helm if sailing singlehanded, should now pull gently on the leeward
gennaker sheet until the gennaker has filled.
Gennakers may be effectively used from a close reach to a broad reach so, to
get downwind, one should become adept at gybing. It is not possible to tack
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