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Happy birthday to the Birds

[caption id="attachment_1918" align="alignright" width="359" caption="The Bird Boat, Curlew. Powered by Pineapples!"][/caption]This year marks the 90th birthday of the Bird Boat class, the oldest one design class on San Francisco Bay.

Bill Claussen, sailing Curlew, the oldest Bird in existence and, fully Powered by Pineapple Sails, has placed first in seven of his last nine races, including the Bird Class Perpetual Trophy for 2011.

At 39 years (no spring chicken ourselves, speaking of birds!), Pineapple Sails has the depth of experience and expertise to tailor sails to boats old and new, classic and modern, race and cruise. We use the highest quality materials and workmanship to build your sails to maximize both performance and durability. And we build them from start to finish right here in sunny Alameda.

For the perfect match for your boat, give us a call.

Wyliecat 48 - Big Boat Main

It is not every day we are asked to build a sail like this!

It is not every day we are asked to build a sail like this! Here are several photos showing the sail under construction and sailing. The luff is 62.5 feet, and the foot is 31.83 feet.

That is a lot of Kevlar! Synthia Petroka prepares Kevlar straps to reinforce the leech.

Don Teakell (right) and Alex Buddington (left) connect the tack and cunningham reinforcement. Alex is kneeling on the window which makes up a large percentage of the foot of the sail. The head is up and to the left, while the clew is down and to the left.

Doing the "sail-walk" to get the brand new sail out to the boat. The rain did not dampen anybody's spirits.

This is the completed sail, first time out of the bag...well, no bag...the sail was delivered with the full length battens installed. The sail bag would have been 32 feet long!

The window is Kevlar reinforced monofilm. The Kevlar straps going across the window connect the clew ring to the luff sliders to reduce the load on the window material. Kneeling at the mast is the boat's designer, Tom Wylie.

Computer Aided Design and Manufacture at Pineapple Sails

[caption id="attachment_1856" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Sewing a carbon sail"][/caption]

Computer Aided Design (CAD) has been an integral part of Pineapple Sails since 1975, when we bought our first computer, a Vector Graphics S-100 bus machine, with a whopping 56 k of ram. We immediately set about writing software to help design sails. Things have certainly changed since then. The Pentium based HP Vectra XU we now use for sail design was inconceivable 20 years ago, especially as a desktop system.

The software 'front end' we use is internally developed and maintained. There is one collection of programs which design mains, jib and asymmetric spinnakers. It is written in a derivative of basic called Mbasic, and cross compiled into c code. There is another program for designing symmetric spinnakers, which is written in Fortran. These programs are called 'front ends' because they write files which describe the panel shapes of the sails which are read by a CAD program. The CAD program then allows unlimited manipulation of the pieces after the 3 dimensional shapes have been developed. The primary operations of the CAD program are to align the the individual pieces of a sail with the yarn direction in the sailcloth, and then the 'packing' of the pieces of the sail together for plotting and cutting by our flat bed plotter.

Continuous development and refinement of our design software is a never-ending process which we take seriously. It allows us to control when the 'software upgrades' come out, rather than waiting and wondering if the next release of someone else's software is addressing our concerns or not.

As nice as computer aided design is, computer aided manufacturing (CAM) has so many benefits that I'm glad we don't have choose between one or the other. They go together. The go a long way together.

Computer Aided Manufacturing is using computers to control machines which help in the manufacturing process. Here at Pineapple Sails, we have a 'flat bed plotter' which is 60 feet long by 7 feet wide. The plotter is essentially a robot which is told by a computer to go to some location on the table and put down a pen and draw a line to some other location, or use the cutting tool and cut the cloth.

The table which supports the plotter is a vacuum table. This means that the table surface has many (5700) holes drilled in it. These holes connect to a plenum which is connected to a large vacuum pump. After we roll out the sail cloth on the table surface, we carefully align the cloth parallel to the edge of the table. Then we turn on the vacuum pump, which sucks the cloth onto the table top. This insures that the cloth holds still while the plotter/cutter moves up and down the table precisely marking and cutting each piece of the sail.

There are many stories about Theory and Practice. You've heard the one about the two small towns separated by a river? Well, computer aided manufacturing is like a bridge between the two towns. In this case 'theory' is the design, and 'practice' is the completed sail.

White Sunbrella Border Troubles

In removing a white Sunbrella UV cover off a furling jib we noticed something that didn’t seem very important at first glance. The sail had black ‘draft stripes,’ but the black color had faded underneath the Sunbrella cover.

That’s strange. The Sunbrella is supposed to protect the sail underneath, and if the Sunbrella is doing its job, what caused the black draft stripes to fade? The stripes look exactly like they have been in direct sunlight.

Well, it turns out that all Sunbrella colors don’t act the same, and it turns out that in our experience, the white color is the least durable of all the colors. In this case ‘durable’ means the ability to keep UV light from passing through the cover material.
The problem here is not really with the faded draft stripes. The problem is the sail itself has been cooked by the UV, and is substantially weaker than it would have been if some other color was chosen.

This particular sail was built in March of 1997. The owners rigorously remove the sail every November and store it below through the stormy winter months. It is re-installed around March or April. So it was 12 ½ years old when we took the cover off, but in another sense it was more like 6 years old.

The purpose here is certainly not to bash Sunbrella. It is the most durable material we know of for protecting sails from sunlight. But be careful in choosing white. Different colors, in particular the blues, seem to last 15 or 20 years! Other things have changed in the interim: in late 2008, the Sunbrella Warranty was extended from 5 years to 10 years. That may indicate an improvement in the product. If you are into warranties, keep in mind that the Sunbrella warranty covers the Sunbrella fabric only, not the sail it was supposed to protect. Google ‘sunbrella warrantee’ if you are interested.

Adding a Bow Pole

A bow pole retro-fit: adding a bow pole for an asymmetric spinnaker to a Cal 39

This is a collection of photos of a bow pole which was fit onto a Cal 39. This system was made possible by the existence of a large stem fitting which encompassed both the forestay fitting and the anchor roller. If you are thinking of doing something like this, you must be sure that what you are fastening the bow pole to has been designed to be pulled up, like a forestay fitting. A stand alone anchor roller is in general not good enough to use for this purpose, because it is often fastened to the deck only using two bolts.

Notice that the pole does a pretty complete job of closing up the anchor locker in the bow. As it turns out, that locker is a poor place to store heavy objects anyway!

The bow pole itself is an aluminum tube with a stiffening sleeve riveted to the tube in the middle. Welded onto the bottom stiffener are two tabs which project down into one of the anchor rollers.

This is a view of the pole from behind. Although it is hard to see, there are 3 channels in the cast aluminum stem fitting. The forestay is in the center one, and the two outside ones were designed to hold anchors.

Here you can see the two sleeve stiffeners riveted onto the tube. The view shows how the tabs, welded onto the bottom stiffener, fit into one of the channels for the anchor roller. Don't be confused by the jib halyard with the red ball on it... it is not the forestay!

This shows how two bolts pass through the tabs to hold it down to the stem fitting. In this picture the bow is to the right, which is different than the rest of the photos.

This is the aft end fitting for the bow pole. When the bow pole is in use this end of the pole is being thrust down into the deck. There must be support under the deck to prevent the deck from bending and cracking.

Tips and Tricks for Spinnaker Handling

The following is an article which I wrote for the RACE GUIDE for the 1998 WEST MARINE PACIFIC CUP - Kame Richards.

OVERVIEW

The following is a list of suggestions on how to handle a spinnaker in the West Marine Pacific Cup race to Kaneohe. Keep in mind that spinnakers are fairly large sails, and are quite capable of dragging a sailboat a long distance, whether the boat is right side up or sideways!

One of the things I admire most about the Pacific Cup Yacht Club is that they make a serious effort to help you learn how to race your boat better.

You are about to embark on a 2200-mile long intensive sailing lesson (not to say immersion). It would be unfortunate to sail that far and not substantially improve your sailing skills.

SPINNAKER SETS

• First of all, know all the halyards are straight and clean before your first set the spinnaker. If it is dark, use a bright flashlight to check things out at the masthead. (This should be done every morning and afternoon as a matter of course.)
• If you will be doing spinnaker peels (see below), anticipate the first spinnaker change so the halyards will still be clear after one spinnaker change.
• On a race like Pacific Cup, I prefer double sheets and guys, even on fairly small boats. This means there is a sheet and a guy on each clew ring in the spinnaker. I also prefer independent shackles (or knots) to attach each of the lines to the clew ring, with the sheet fastened above the guy. This makes it twice as hard to flog off both lines. The sheet needs to be over the guy to make dip pole gybing run smoother. I also prefer knots in the end of the spinnaker gear, but the gear must be long enough for the clew of the sail to wave like a flag in front of the boat. This means the sheet is two times the length of the boat. The length of the guy depends on where you lead your guy, and whether or not you use a turning block. I know the books tell you to never EVER put knots in your spinnaker gear, but it is awfully hard to take the sail down if all the gear has some how been allowed to run free, and now the spinnaker, AND all the sheets and guys are streaming down wind from the masthead!
• It's okay to set the spinnaker right from the bow pulpit. This means there will be less afterguy to bring in. The halyard will also go up faster because it will not be sliding up the outside surface of the genoa.
• If you are using a spinnaker sock, it seems best to connect the halyard to the top of the sock, pull the halyard up, straighten out any twists in the sock, connect the sheets and guys, then haul the sock up to fill the sail.
• In the event you are using a roller furling jib, I think it would be best if you drop the sail onto the deck after you set the spinnaker rather than furl up the jib. Reason 1: The roller jib is quite heavy, and it is not wise to carry that much weight (a) that high in the air and (b) that close to the bow. Reason 2: If you get a spinnaker wrap, it will be much harder to undo because the spinnaker cloth will not slip off the UV cover material on the jib as easily as it slides off the aluminum foil of the furler.

SPINNAKER GYBES

• On the boats I've gone on in the past, we have found it best to assign people to the individual jobs for gybing, independent of being on or off watch. This means the same person will be in the bow, on the topping lift, in the cockpit, etc. You may want to appoint two drivers so the one who was completely asleep when the gybe was called doesn't have to try to steer while half asleep!
• If it is fairly windy, two-pole gybes are something to consider. In this case you rig a second pole, including a topping lift and a foreguy. Connect the new pole to the lazy guy, top it up, square it back and trim in the new foreguy. Now the spinnaker is held solidly from three corners and consequently will hold very still during the gybe. Now gybe the mainsail over to the other side, and take down the old pole. The problems / dangers of this style of gybe is that if you round the boat up or down, you will stick a pole in the water, and probably break the pole, or worse, the mast. You also must be careful setting the new pole and dropping the old pole, because it is momentarily pointing directly into the spinnaker, and if they touch, the chances of tearing the sail are very high. Another problem is to be sure that the two inboard ends of the poles don't bind on each other while you are working with them.
• If it is very windy and you feel you can't complete a gybe without breaking something, the "chicken gybe" is a safe way to get the job done. In this case you drop the spinnaker, and then actually TACK the boat, and then re-set the spinnaker. In my experience, if it is so windy that you elect to chicken gybe, you will be smart enough to not try to reset the spinnaker immediately.
• If you are using a sock, consider pulling the sock down to contain the spinnaker and lowering the pole onto the foredeck. Then gybe the mainsail, connect the spinnaker pole onto the new afterguy, and reset the spinnaker.

SPINNAKER CHANGES

• The most conservative spinnaker change is the bald headed change. Get the new spinnaker up on deck, with the bag fastened down and the corners organized. Strip off the old spinnaker (see "spinnaker drops" below), put the same gear on the new sail, and send it right back up again. This provides an opportunity to change spinnaker halyards.
• Spinnaker peels take a little more time and a little more orchestration, but when properly done, the boat is never without a spinnaker that is full and pulling. In the peel, you rig the new spinnaker with a new (clear) halyard, a sheet, and a "tag line" which will temporarily hold the tack of the sail. (Rig the tag line as follows: a snap shackle at the free end, clove-hitched to the headstay at shoulder height with the snap shackle hanging two feet down, with the other end securely fastened to the bow cleat to prevent the whole arrangement from sliding up the forestay.) The new spinnaker is hoisted and trimmed. When it is drawing, the old spinnaker is tripped from its afterguy. It will rotate off downwind and act like a flag flying from the halyard and the sheet, where it will hang out for a while. Now ease the spinnaker pole toppinglift and afterguy so the guy can be connected to the spinnaker tack. Take the slack out of the afterguy, and trip free the tack of the sail from the tag line. Now square the pole back to its proper sailing position. Not until the new spinnaker is fully trimmed is the old sail dropped. Finally do what needs to be done to straighten out the spinnaker halyards. Occasionally this requires sending someone to the top of the mast.

SPINNAKER DROPS

• You must be sure the halyard will come down uninterrupted, so flake out the halyard tail, or drop the tail over the side so you know it is straight (literally!), and can't get tangled up. While you are at it, be sure the afterguy and lazy sheet are organized too.
• In order for the crew to pull in the spinnaker, it must completely collapse. This should happen before the halyard is let down.
• One way is to ease the afterguy forward until the pole is near the forestay, then let the afterguy run completely free. "Free" means taking all the wraps off the winch and letting the line go.
• Another way is to trim in the sheet, ease the pole forward, and bear the boat off. This will move the spinnaker into the dirty air behind the mainsail, which will cause it to collapse. Now run a whole bunch of the halyard, watching the crew gathering the spinnaker to be sure the sail doesn't fall into the water. There are two potential problems to this style of drop: (1) If you let the halyard off as soon as the sail collapses you run the risk of the spinnaker blowing through the foretriangle the wrong way and causing a spinnaker wrap. (2) As the sheet is trimmed in, the spinnaker is prone to round the boat up. It is essential to bear the boat off to counteract the round-up problem and cause the spinnaker to collapse.
• Still another way is to lower the topping lift and ease the pole forward so the foredeck person can reach up and trip the guy off the sail by pulling the release on the snapshackle. I would say this is my LEAST favorite method. The spinnaker pole tends to thrash around after the sail has been tripped, and I don't want the foredeck (or anyone else, for that matter!) hurt.

SPINNAKER TRIM

• The spinnaker is properly trimmed if the wind is flowing just tangent to the leading edge of the sail. Don't think of the spinnaker as a bucket which "catches the wind." Just like a main or a jib, it is a foil which bends the wind, and just like a main or a jib, the spinnaker pulls the hardest when the wind is traveling smoothly across the spinnaker's OUTSIDE surface.
• The sheet side:
• The luff should fold in every once in a while. This is the best way to tell that the wind is flowing tangent to the spinnakers' leading edge.
• The boat is SLOW if the luff doesn't fold in every once in awhile.
• Anticipate acceleration: When the boat speeds up, as in surging down a wave, the apparent wind will increase and swing forward. Start trimming in the spinnaker sheet as soon as the boat starts to speed up. Be sure you ease it back out as the boat slows back to its original speed.
• The driver should not steer to correct for these small spinnaker luffs. If you are the trimmer, be sure you talk with the driver so you understand the drivers anxieties about how the spinnaker is being trimmed
• The guy side
• A good basic rule is to keep the pole perpendicular to the apparent wind angle, which is indicated by the wind indicator at the top of the mast.
• The pole height is determined by where (in terms of up and down the leading edge) the spinnaker first folds when it luffs. The pole is too low if the luff occurs high up near the head. If the sail is luffing relatively low, like half way down or more, the pole is to high.
• Be sure that you trim the sheet much more often than the pole. Although you can fix a collapse by easing the pole, this should be the last resort. The boat seems to lose its punch when the leading edge of the spinnaker is being constantly moved backwards and forwards.
• Halyard
• It is best to keep the spinnaker halyard all the way up. It keeps the sail from moving around too much.

SPINNAKER STEERING

Fundamental to steering is realizing that every time you move the rudder, the boat slows down a little bit. So the more you can get the boat to go the way you want it to without using the rudder the better.

• Anticipate steering: If the boat is straight up and down, it will tend to go straight ahead. When the boat heels left, it will turn right. When it heels right, it will turn left. As soon as the boat changes angle of heel, start putting in the steering correction. The sooner you put in the correction, the smaller the correction can be, thereby slowing you down less.
• Anticipate acceleration: When the boat speeds up, as in surging down a wave, the apparent wind will increase and swing forward. Bearing off (turning slightly downwind) will reduce the chance of a spinnaker collapse...especially if you see that the spinnaker sheet is not being trimmed in at this moment.
• As a driver, you need to keep your trimmer informed of how you feel. If you want the sheet trimmed a little softer on average, just ask for it. This usually starts the kind of conversation that gets your boat sailing faster.

CHAFE WATCH

In racing to Kaneohe, chances are you will sail something like 1500 miles with a spinnaker up. That is a lot of miles, and it will be a lot of hours too! It will be the equivalent of many years of racing if you just did buoy racing or the local ocean racing series. One of the ways this will manifest itself in chafe on the lines. You need to set up a 'Chafe Patrol' once or twice a day . The common places to look are:

• Spinnaker sheet on the winch -- A common problem, especially with brand new winch drums, also a problem with polypropylene covered sheets. This usually is no surprise. You will see a lot of fuzz lying around the winch base!
• Spinnaker sheet on the bottom edge of the boom -- For this type of sailing, the sheet should not be allowed to rub on the boom. Even on a smooth boom, you can chafe through the outside sheath of a sheet in one night. Rig a spinnaker twing or snatch block in such a way as to prevent the sheet from rubbing on the boom.
• Spinnaker halyard -- Even though this might be the place you would least like to go, someone should get up to the top of the rig once a day to be sure everything is hanging together. If you have been using one halyard for a few days, you can change spinnaker halyards by sending up the inspector on a jib halyard, have them attach the other spinnaker halyard to the head of the sail, take up the load on the new halyard, ease off the old, and bring the old halyard back down to the deck...being sure everything is clean of course! Keep in mind a broken spinnaker halyard usually lands the spinnaker in the water straight in front of the boat. After you sail over it, it doesn't quite seem to work the same, even if you get all the pieces back!
• Afterguy in the jaw of the pole -- Another hard place to get to, and a hard place to see, but it must be checked. One opportunity is during spinnaker changes when the afterguy is not connected to anything.

CHAFE SOLUTIONS

The first solution is to not let the chafe happen in the first place. But if it has already occurred, here are some fixes:

• Spinnaker sheet on the winch -- Spinnaker sheet on the bottom edge of the boom -- usually reversing the sheet will move the chafed portion of the sheet out of the actively used area of the sheet.
• Halyard at masthead -- Reversing the halyard, or trimming off the top foot or two, will give you a "new" piece of line to work with.
• Rigging an external halyard, which touches nothing except sheaves and a winch will chafe the least.
• Afterguy in the jaw of the pole -- Again either shortening or reversing the guy will solve the problem. Or wrap the last 4" to 6" in leather.

SPINNAKER REPAIRS

• You will need to have a spinnaker repair kit, which is a sub-section of the sail repair kit. The spinnaker repair section needs to contain the following:
• one quart of acetone or denatured alcohol
• masking tape / duct tape / vinyl tape and push-pins (to hold the torn sail in place while you apply the adhesive material)
• "Sticky back" Dacron tape, about the luff length of your spinnaker, 2 or 3 inches wide depending on the size of your boat. (This is NOT the same as "spinnaker repair tape." The dacron sticky back is both stronger as a material, and uses a much more tenacious adhesive than the ripstop nylon repair tape.)
• Stainless Steel round rings (in the event a head or clew ring pulls out)
• 1 inch tubular webbing, 4 to 6 pieces one to two feet long depending on the size of your boat. (to anchor the round ring to the remaining reinforcement in the head or tack)
• hand sewing kit (needed in the event the loads in the repaired area are too great for adhesives alone)
• Where is the hole? If the hole is relatively close to a corner (approximately 10% to 15% of the luff length), it is more important than a hole that is further away from the corner.
• What kind of a hole do you have? If the hole is about 1/4 inch in length you can pretty much ignore it. Holes of about 4 inches in length would cause me enough anxiety that I would want to get the
• sail down and fixed reasonably soon. With bigger holes, it becomes important to try to get the sail down quickly without making the hole worse.
• Repair goals:
• The repair will be accomplished by applying the dacron "sticky back" tape across the tear. The adhesives will not stick unless the sail is clean and dry. Use the acetone or denatured alcohol on paper towels for cleaning and drying.
• For a working surface use an upside down floorboard, because the owner will probably let you stick pushpins into it, but not likely into the table or the deck. If you use pushpins for holding the repair, don't pull the cloth so tight that the pushpins tear the spinnaker anew!
• We want the repair area to be locally flat, just like before the sail was torn, so do not overlap the cloth. We want a butt joint, so the yarns on one side of the tear just touch the yarns on the other side of the tear. It is also desirable for the individual yarns to line up across the repair. If they are shifted left or right, we will end up with a pucker at one end of the repair, and the sticky back dacron tape will tend to come off the sail at the wrinkle.
• If the hole is longer than two or three feet, place the sticky back on both sides.
• Procedure:
• Clean and dry the effected area with the acetone.
• Get the effected area flat.
• Cut the sticky back to a suitable working length. Longer than three or four feet becomes challenging.
• Peel back 6 inches of the paper backing at one end of your working piece.
• Carefully position the sticky-back so (1) the middle of the hole runs down the middle of the sticky back, and (2) so one end of the sticky-back will reach beyond the hole by several inches. This is best done by placing the still paper-back portion onto the hole, getting the alignment correct, and then laying down the exposed adhesive. Now working from the glued end, peel off the backing and rub the sticky-back onto the spinnaker.
• The adhesive is pressure sensitive, so press hard while you are rubbing the sticky- back down, especially along the outside edges.
• If the tear is in a high stress area, or large, use sticky-back on both sides of the spinnaker. You may also need to stitch through the sticky-back to reduce slippage.

After 2200 miles of sailing, you will have had a great opportunity to work on many of the ideas covered here. I hope this article helps you anticipate problems so they can be avoided and, most of all, I hope it helps you get to Kaneohe sooner!

Downwind Sails for Cruisers

This article is by Jim and Sue Corenman

Comments in [square brackets] are by Kame Richards wearing the hat of editor, and trying to explain the pictures (There are several photos which occur later in this article. Please be patient.).

Some comments on downwind sails:

Our observation is that only a few cruisers take the sailing part seriously, and most are content to make lots of compromises for the sake of convenience and not worry about it. Sail area is one such topic, and while most cruisers understand that things are less windy downwind, they don't take the next step and set a larger sail when sailing downwind. But more than convenience, we think fear is the biggest factor, fear that things will get too windy for a large downwind sail, resulting in general chaos and unpleasantness, and jeeze, how do you get that thing down anyway?

Sue and I are pretty odd cruisers in that we really enjoy sailing, and look at passages as opportunities to go sailing. We've also done a lot of ocean racing (maybe that's how we got this way), and don't think twice about changing the sail configuration to suit the conditions (that's the biggest reason that we don't have a furler... we can't decide which jib we would want to see all the time).Sailing downwind means less apparent wind, which means that the boat can carry quite a bit more sail area to maintain reasonable boat speed. A bigger jib is one choice, but for most boats a better answer is a larger sail yet, i.e. a spinnaker of some sort. One popular choice is an asymmetric cruising spinnaker, generally tacked to the boat's centerline, either to the headstay or sometimes to a bow pole. This arrangement is great on a broad reach, down to about 130-140 degrees AWA (apparent wind angle), but trying to sail deeper than that causes the spinnaker to collapse in the lee of the main. Being tacked to the centerline, they won't generally wrap, but it is still annoying and ineffective. When running or sailing a very broad reach, an asymmetric spinnaker really wants to be flipped around and poled out into the fresh breeze opposite the main. Few people like to do that, because it means handling a pole.

Symmetric spinnakers were born out of racing, but they have a lot to offer as downwind cruising sails. The biggest advantage is that since they are tacked to a spinnaker pole, the tack is moveable, and can be adjusted forward or back, up or down to suit different conditions. This makes symmetric spinnakers very effective even at deep sailing angles, which are all too common. (Murphy's law applied to cruising says that the destination lies either directly upwind or downwind). And symmetric spinnakers are big, substantially bigger than most asymmetrics, which is great for light air sailing (although a large asymmetric is quite effective in light air, because of the reaching angles associated with optimum light-air running).

Our conclusion was that if you needed to set a pole anyway to sail a broad reach or a run with an asymmetric cruising spinnaker, why not just set a real spinnaker in the first place and enjoy the increased area and versatility? We have a cruising spinnaker aboard, so this is not just idle thinking, and have sailed with it tacked to the headstay, to the bow fitting, onto a spinnaker pole set low, and poled out to windward. And we always look at it, scratch our heads, and can't figure out why it is supposed to be easier.

There are some potential problems with spinnakers that need to be addressed before you can really be comfortable. Getting them set without drama is one, but that is easy enough to do with a sock or snuffer or whatever you want to call it. Getting them down is another matter altogether, and it has been repeatedly demonstrated that a sock can't be pulled down if the sail is still full. And the potential for wrapping a spinnaker around the headstay is real.

A few comments on gear:

The pole will be used a lot of course, and will carry a lot of load particularly if things get a little goofy. We will of course endeavor to keep the sail under control at all times, but you don't want the pole folding up if that goal is not met. So it needs to be a proper pole, the right length for the boat (usually the boat's "J" measurement, from the mast to the headstay fitting) and of sufficient diameter. Skinny whisker poles and telescoping poles are definitely out. The easiest place to stow a pole is with the inboard end pulled up on an extended mast track, vertically in front of the mast.

That will allow it to be deployed on either side of the headstay without having to handle a heavy pole on deck. It needs a proper pole lift from a point as high as practical (for leverage) and a foreguy to the middle of the foredeck and led aft. (Our poles are stowed on deck, but they are carbon, about half the weight of an aluminum pole. If that appeals, talk to Larry Tuttle at Waterat in Santa Cruz; he does carbon poles for a lot of big race boats).

We use double sheets and guys, but most folks would be happy with single gear. Use spectra for the afterguys, Dacron for the sheet (unless a single set of gear is used in which case you probably want Spectra). Good shackles are important, Sparcraft's are the best if you can still get them, Gibb and Wichard are OK also. Do not use shackles with pull-pins, e.g. Nicro Fico, as they will shake loose when you least want them to.

The blocks for the sheets (and guys if used) should be set forward of where you might set them for racing. Sheet blocks are normally positioned all the way aft, but moving them 5-10' forward (or setting a snatch block) will choke the spinnaker down a bit and make it more stable, as well as preventing the sheet from chafing on the underside of the boom. Moving the afterguy block forward will reduce the upward pull on the pole, making life easier for the end fitting as well as preventing the pole from heading for the sky every time the foreguy is eased.

A sock is almost essential for cruising with a spinnaker. There are many kinds of socks, some with their control lines in a separate sleeve, some with external lines. Our favorite is the type with a the lines in a separate sleeve, such as the Pineapple Snuffers or the ATN sock, but most of the others work just fine. Be sure that the sock is long enough to reach within a couple of feet of the clews, as having ten feet of sail hanging out the bottom of the sock is a nuisance.

Setting the Spinnaker:

We use the Honey/Lindsay method for getting the spinnaker up. (Stan Honey and Sally Lindsay are well-known San Francisco sailors who have won most of the west coast short-handed races at one point or another, including an overall win double-handed in the '96 West Marine Pacific Cup Race to Hawaii).

Step One:

Get the pole set up, with the inboard end in the normal position (i.e. about 12% of "I" off the deck), and the outboard end in what we will call the "Set" position, low and inboard from its normal position. The pole jaw should be 5-6' above the deck and 2-3' to windward of the headstay, so that it is a comfortable reach from the bow with one arm wrapped around the headstay. The afterguy is in the pole fitting, with no sail attached yet, and the afterguy, foreguy and pole lift are all snugged up tight to hold the pole firmly in this position. Mark the lines (lift and afterguy) so the pole can be returned to this "Set Position" without fiddling.

Step two:

Set the autopilot to an AWA of about 130, tie the sock control lines down to a bow cleat, and hoist the halyard. Yes, the spinnaker clews are not attached to anything yet, that is the key.

Step three:

Once the halyard is up, spin the sock around as required to sort out the tack and clew, making sure that the control line is clear on the inside of the sail and not twisted at the top. Pull one corner (doesn't matter which, but call it the "tack") around the headstay and clip it into the afterguy shackle at end of the pole, and clip the sheet onto the other corner (the clew). Take a moment to check that the spinnaker, sheets (and lazy guys if rigged) are outside the headstay, shrouds and lifelines.

Step four:

Pull the sheet in a bit to start the sail filling, and raise the sock.

[At this point the sock is fully hoisted. Notice that the spinnaker is fairly choked with the pole tip still low, in the "set" position.]

Once the sail is flying, move the pole tip up and aft by easing the foreguy and taking up the lift. The afterguy will be close enough for now.

That's it for the hoist, set the auto pilot where you want it, and fix up the pole height and sheet trim. We use the autopilot's apparent wind mode exclusively when sailing downwind, to maintain proper sail trim and (perhaps more importantly) to avoid accidental jibes. Sailing much below 150 AWA by autopilot is a bit dicey, and the boat is happier on a bit of a reach no matter what the sail combination is.

[This photograph, and the preceding two. are looking nearly straight down the centerline of the boat. See how the spinnaker is exposed as the pole is lifted and squared aft. With the spinnaker pole properly trimmed, notice how much of the sail is to weather of the centerline. This is why the symmetric spinnaker gives better performance sailing runs.]

When we are sailing deep wind angles (i.e. 140-150 degrees AWA), we often set a spinnaker net, particularly at night. Nets are old- fashioned but work just fine, and eliminate the worry of a wrap. Ours has a "luff" and "leach" of 3/8" yellow polypropylene rope, with five straps of sail-tie webbing from luff to leach in the top half of the foretriangle. Cheap and simple, and works like a charm.

Dousing:

Getting a spinnaker up is fine, but what about getting it down? And especially when the wind comes up? The extra sail area is great as long as the boat keeps sailing downwind, and it is important to douse the spinnaker well before boat control becomes an issue. If the boat stops going downwind (as in a round up), things will get windy in a hurry, and that is bad when you have a lot of sail set.

Our usual drill for a take-down is to return the pole to the "set position", walk forward, and trip the guy shackle with a fid. This releases the tack, and the sail will flop around behind the main until the sock line is pulled down. Pulling in the lazy guy or the sheet will help keep the sail behind the main until it is socked.

In lighter winds, simply easing the pole near the headstay and sailing low is enough to collapse the spinnaker behind the main, and simply pull the sock down when the sail collapses. Once the sail is socked, it is harmless and the halyard can be dropped in a leisurely fashion.

And if it gets windy, letting go of the sheet and pulling the pole end down and inboard (to the "set" position or below) will allow the sock to be pulled down from the bow pulpit. The trick, if it is windy, is to let go of one side of the sail and pull the other side relatively straight, i.e. let go of the tack at the end of the pole) and tighten the sheet or lazy guy, or let go of the sheet and lower the tack by dropping the pole end. The only difference is where the sail flops around, either behind the main or out ahead of the forestay.

Our preference on "Heart of Gold" is to let go of the tack and take in the lazy guy to bring the spinnaker into the lee of the main.

We've got one more trick to make this easier, in deference to the size of our spinnakers (approximately 2,000 square feet). We made up a "trip fitting" to release the afterguy shackle from the cockpit. It is a T-shaped affair that fits through the fid hole of a Sparcraft shackle, a fiberglass crossbar and a wire stem, led via a microblock to a small 3:1 tackle inside the pole and then back to the cockpit. A solid tug on the cockpit end of the trip line releases the spinnaker from the pole end, unloading it instantly. Pull in the lazy guy or sheet, and leisurely wander forward and sock the sail. This system works like a dream, whether the problem is a squall or a fish. [In the photograph, Sue has just tripped the afterguy snap shackle while sitting in the cockpit. Another benefit of this tripping mechanism is that the spinnaker pole is still being held frimly in position by the topping lift, foreguy and afterguy, so the pole will not be flailing around crashing into things.]

[These two photos show details of how the tripping mechanism is rigged.]

Those are all the tricky bits. There's a lot of basic stuff about spinnaker handling covered in detail in The Pacific Cup Handbook which Sue and I have put together (available from Pineapple Sails or West Marine).

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers, Jim & Sue

Heart of Gold

Bali, Indonesia

Stan Honey sent us the following list of further suggestions:

Jim,

Great write-up of shorthanded spinnaker handling in the Pineapple Web Site, and thanks for the credit.

The only addition that I would make, is at the beginning of Step Four in the set, just before you start to hoist the sock, reach into the bell and grab a handfull of the foot of the sail, so that as the sock starts to go up it doesn't drag with it the belly of the sail.If the belly of the sail gets dragged up, then the sock gets all constipated when it is about half way up. Whereas if the belly of the sail stays where it belongs, then the sock goes up very easily.

As the sock goes up, even though it is a powered ascent, driven by the filling kite, I have found that you should hoist the uphaul as fast as you can to keep the sock clear. As an aside, the sock stays the best organized when you are sailing in windy singlehanded events in which the sheet stays loose and the sock gets manually hoisted all the way to the top before the kite gets sheeted in. This isn't as cool as the powered ascent mode, so Sally and I never do it that way in a doublehanded race.

Once the sock is up, I tie the uphaul line quite tight to the lifeline, and then tie the downhaul line loosely to the lifeline a foot or so further aft. This keeps the lines from twisting, and keeps the bell at the masthead out of trouble.

To douse at night, you grab the downhaul line, and then untie the uphaul and downhaul knots without ever losing grip of the downhaul line. Even though the lines end up snaking all around your forearms, you know that they are all straight and that all you have to do is to pull the downhaul without ever letting go of it or reaching over another line.

End for End Gybes - by Task

End for end Gybe using Lazy Sheets and Guys - by Task

This is a re-ordering of the outline on End for End Gybes where the tasks are sorted by job rather than by time (which things happen first, then second, etc.) The intention is that the appropriate section of this list can be handed to each crew member. They can see all their tasks listed together, and gain an understanding of what will be happening next.

DRIVER

A. "SET-UP"

This call comes from the driver. Call "set up for the gybe" loud enough for everyone to hear. Get an idea on what the heading is going to be on the new gybe. Watch how quickly the crew is getting ready. Are they covering all bases?

B. "SQUARE BACK"

This call comes from the driver. Start the boat bearing off, usually before you ask for the square back, but after you are convinced the important bases are covered. Watch the spinnaker and the mast head windex, and the angle of heel. Keep the cockpit crew appraised of how the bear-off is going, like slowly, or move faster!

C. "TRIP"

This call comes from the driver. The first time the boat heels to weather, call "TRIP!" loud enough for all the crew to hear. Keep the boat turning continuously through the gybe. DO NOT try to sail dead down wind while the gybe is completed.

[NOTE: If the pole is tripped before the boat heels to weather, the load on the afterguy will aggressively shove the pole to leeward, in this case towards the left hand side of the boat. When this happens, the whole spinnaker is moving to the left, which will tend to make the boat want to turn aggressively to the right, which is not the direction we need to turn to complete the gybe… Tripping late is better than tripping early.]

D. "MADE"

This call comes from the mast / foredeck person. Swing the boat onto the new gybe, and hold a steady course. Pay ultimate attention to the apparent wind angle, and the direction the spinnaker wants to move towards. There are big gainers for not collapsing the sail! At this stage it is mostly up to you.

E. DONE

It is not clear when the gybe is all done! Line the boat up on the new course. Watch the sail and the apparent wind angle...don't gybe back! Nobody is ready! Keep talking to the spinnaker trimmers so they know what you are going to do next.

MAST / FOREDECK

A. "SET-UP"

This call comes from the driver. Move spinnaker pole car to a height you can comfortably reach

B. "SQUARE BACK"

This call comes from the driver. Wait, but have the lazy after guy (port side in this case) in your hand.

C. "TRIP"

This call comes from the driver. Trip/open the inboard end of the pole and remove the pole from the mast. Place the lazy guy into this end of the pole and push the pole towards the new side of the boat, to port in this case. The pole needs to go outboard and rotate forwards, towards the tack of the spinnaker. It should go out easily because there should be no tension in the lazy guy.

D. "MADE"

This call comes from the mast / foredeck person. Now remove the pole from the old/starboard side after guy, and attach this end of the pole onto the mast. Do not call made until the pole is securely on the mast.

E. DONE

It is not clear when the gybe is all done! Move the inboard end of the spinnaker pole car back to its normal sailing position.

FOREGUY

A. “SETUP”

Get somebody on the foreguy (it will need easing).

B. "SQUARE BACK"

This call comes from the driver. Ease the foreguy as the pole moves aft.

C. "TRIP"

This call comes from the driver. The foreguy will remain useless until the pole is back on the mast and the new afterguy in under tension.

D. "MADE"

This call comes from the mast / foredeck person. Waiting…

E. DONE

It is not clear when the gybe is all done! Firm up the foreguy when the pole is in it's proper position.

STARBOARD LINES

A. "SET-UP"

This call comes from the driver.

AFTERGUY Prepare the afterguy to be squared back (needs a handle).

LAZY SHEET Get the lazy sheet around a winch and pull out all the slack in the line. If you are using spinnaker “twings” on the sheets, pull them on tight.

B. "SQUARE BACK"

This call comes from the driver.

AFTERGUY Grind aft the afterguy, being careful not to collapse the spinnaker.

LAZY SHEET It will have to take care of itself for now

C. "TRIP"

This call comes from the driver.

AFTERGUY As soon as the "TRIP" call is made, and the pole has come off the mast, you are done with this line. Keep tension in it with one hand while you transfer the load to the new sheet with your other hand. Leave the after guy uncleated.

LAZY SHEET / ACTIVE SHEET As soon as the "TRIP" call is made, this has become the active sheet. Transfer the winch handle into this winch.

D. "MADE"

This call comes from the mast / foredeck person.

OLD AFTERGUY This line has no function and needs no attention. When the new sheet is under control, remove the wraps of the now lazy guy from around its winch so it won't effect your trimming of the sheet.

NEW SHEET Keep the spinnaker full. If the square back went well this should be a one person job for a while. If you need help call for a grinder.

E. DONE

It is not clear when the gybe is all done!

NEW SHEET Back in the saddle again...if the sheet doesn't need to be trimmed in, try easing it until the spinnaker luffs. Be sure you have a grinder.

OLD AFTERGUY It is all done, just keep it from dragging in the water.

PORT LINES

A. "SET-UP"

This call comes from the driver.

LAZY GUY Loosen the wraps from the winch so the bow person can pull out the necessary slack.

SHEET Get ready to ease during the "square-back." If you are using spinnaker “twings,” pull them on tight.

B. "SQUARE BACK"

This call comes from the driver.

LAZY GUY It will have to take care of itself for now. This is a good time to move the winch handle into the afterguy winch.

SHEET Ease the sheet as the boat bears off, being careful not to collapse the spinnaker.

C. "TRIP"

This call comes from the driver.

LAZY GUY Keep waiting!

SHEET Fly the spinnaker, but don't ease the clew past the headstay

D. "MADE"

This call comes from the mast / foredeck person.

NEW AFTERGUY No more waiting now!. As soon as the "made" call comes through, grind the pole aft FAST!. Watch the outboard end of the pole to see that the afterguy is (1) clear on the outboard end, and (2) the tack of the sail is at the pole jaw.

OLD SHEET Cleat off the old sheet to prevent the clew of the sail from getting past the headstay. It is all done for this gybe.

E. DONE

It is not clear when the gybe is all done!

NEW AFTERGUY Trim the afterguy to the current apparent wind angle. Help get the spinnaker pole set to the right height.

OLD SHEET Wind the lazy sheet around the after guy to prevent the sheet from dragging in the water.

MAINSAIL

A. "SET-UP"

This call comes from the driver. Cleat the traveler on both sides to prevent the traveler car from banging into the end of the track. Get ready to ease the main sheet during the “SQUARE-BACK.”.

B. "SQUARE BACK"

This call comes from the driver. Ease the mainsheet as the boat bears off.

C. "TRIP"

This call comes from the driver. Gybe the mainsail at (or soon after) the "trip" call.

D. "MADE"

This call comes from the mast / foredeck person. As long as the mainsail has gone across, look around for someone who needs help...most likely the new spinnaker sheet trimmer, who may need a grinder.

E. DONE

It is not clear when the gybe is all done! Trim for the new apparent wind angle.

End for End Gybes - Chronological

End for end gybes using lazy sheets and guys - chronological

This procedure describes a method for gybing a boat in the 25 to 35 foot range assuming a fairly windy day. By “fairly windy” I mean you are concerned you might have control problems during the gybe. The "LAZY SHEETS AND GUYS" implies there are two lines on each clew of the spinnaker, so at any one time, one of these lines can be slack. During a gybe both the port and starboard afterguys will be slack. This will allow the foredeck person to complete their job without having to exert super-human strength in order to push the pole out. During this time the spinnaker is controlled by the two sheets.

In this example we are gybing from starboard pole to port pole, with a crew of six people. I am asking one person to deal with the afterguy and lazy sheet on one side of the cockpit, and another crew member to deal with the spinnaker sheet and lazy guy on the other side of the cockpit. I have given the control of the foreguy to a single person, which is not really a full time job. The foreguy trimmer should help out grinding in the cockpit.

A. "SET-UP" This call comes from the driver.

1. DRIVER

Call "set up for the gybe" loud enough for everyone to hear. Get an idea on what the heading is going to be on the new gybe. Watch how quickly the crew is getting ready. Are they covering all bases?

2. MAST / FOREDECK

Move spinnaker pole car to a height you can comfortably reach

3. FOREGUY

Get somebody on the foreguy (it will need easing).

4. STARBOARD LINES

AFTERGUY Prepare the afterguy to be squared back (needs a handle).

LAZY SHEET Get the lazy sheet around a winch and pull out all the slack in the line. If you are using spinnaker “twings” on the sheets, pull them on tight.

5. PORT LINES

LAZY GUY Loosen the wraps from the winch so the bow person can pull out the necessary slack.

SHEET Get ready to ease during the "square-back." If you are using spinnaker “twings,” pull them on tight.

6. MAINSAIL

Cleat the traveler on both sides to prevent the traveler car from banging into the end of the track. Get ready to ease the main sheet during the “SQUARE-BACK.”.

B. "SQUARE BACK" This call comes from the driver.

1. DRIVER

Start the boat bearing off, usually before you ask for the square back, but after you are convinced the important bases are covered. Watch the spinnaker and the mast head windex, and the angle of heel. Keep the cockpit crew appraised of how the bear-off is going, like slowly, or move faster!

2. MAST / FOREDECK

Wait, but have the lazy after guy (port side in this case) in your hand.

3. FOREGUY

Ease the foreguy as the pole moves aft.

4. STARBOARD LINES

AFTERGUY Grind aft the afterguy, being careful not to collapse the spinnaker.

LAZY SHEET It will have to take care of itself for now

5. PORT LINES

LAZY GUY It will have to take care of itself for now. This is a good time to move the winch handle into the afterguy winch.

SHEET Ease the sheet as the boat bears off, being careful not to collapse the spinnaker.

6. MAINSAIL

Ease the mainsheet as the boat bears off.

C. "TRIP" This call comes from the driver.

1. DRIVER

The first time the boat heels to weather, call "TRIP!" loud enough for all the crew to hear. Keep the boat turning continuously through the gybe. DO NOT try to sail dead down wind while the gybe is completed. [NOTE: If the pole is tripped before the boat heels to weather, the load on the afterguy will aggressively shove the pole to leeward, in this case towards the left hand side of the boat. When this happens, the whole spinnaker is moving to the left, which will tend to make the boat want to turn aggressively to the right, which is not the direction we need to turn to complete the gybe… Tripping late is better than tripping early.]

2. MAST / FOREDECK

Trip/open the inboard end of the pole and remove the pole from the mast. Place the lazy guy into this end of the pole and push the pole towards the new side of the boat, to port in this case. The pole needs to go outboard and rotate forwards, towards the tack of the spinnaker. It should go out easily because there should be no tension in the lazy guy.

3. FOREGUY

The foreguy will remain useless until the pole is back on the mast and the new afterguy in under tension.

4. STARBOARD LINES

AFTERGUY As soon as the "TRIP" call is made, and the pole has come off the mast, you are done with this line. Keep tension in it with one hand while you transfer the load to the new sheet with your other hand. Leave the after guy uncleated.

LAZY SHEET / ACTIVE SHEET As soon as the "TRIP" call is made, this has become the active sheet. Transfer the winch handle into this winch.

5. PORT LINES

LAZY GUY Keep waiting!

SHEET Fly the spinnaker, but don't ease the clew past the headstay

6. MAINSAIL

Gybe the mainsail at the "trip" call.

D. "MADE" This call comes from the mast / foredeck person.

1. DRIVER

Swing the boat onto the new gybe, and hold a steady course. Pay ultimate attention to the apparent wind angle, and the direction the spinnaker wants to move towards. There are big gainers for not collapsing the sail! At this stage it is mostly up to you.

2. MAST / FOREDECK

Now remove the pole from the old/starboard side after guy, and attach this end of the pole onto the mast. Do not call made until the pole is securely on the mast.

3. FOREGUY

Waiting…

4. STARBOARD LINES

OLD AFTERGUY This line has no function and needs no attention. When the new sheet is under control, remove the wraps of the now lazy guy from around its winch so it won’t effect your trimming of the sheet.

NEW SHEET Keep the spinnaker full. If the square back went well this should be a one person job for a while. If you need help call for a grinder.

5. PORT LINES

NEW AFTERGUY No more waiting now!. As soon as the "made" call comes through, grind the pole aft FAST!. Watch the outboard end of the pole to see that the afterguy is (1) clear on the outboard end, and (2) the tack of the sail is at the pole jaw.

OLD SHEET Cleat off the old sheet to prevent the clew of the sail from getting past the headstay. It is all done for this gybe.

6. MAINSAIL

As long as the mainsail has gone across, look around for someone who needs help...most likely the new spinnaker sheet trimmer, who may need a grinder.

E. DONE It is not clear when the gybe is all done!

1. DRIVER

Line the boat up on the new course. Watch the sail and the apparent wind angle...don't gybe back! Nobody is ready! Keep talking to the spinnaker trimmers so they know what you are going to do next.

2. MAST / FOREDECK

Move the inboard end of the spinnaker pole car back to its normal sailing position.

3. FOREGUY

Firm up the foreguy when the pole is in it's proper position.

4. STARBOARD LINES

NEW SHEET Back in the saddle again...if the sheet doesn't need to be trimmed in, try easing it until the spinnaker luffs. Be sure you have a grinder.

OLD AFTERGUY It is all done, just keep it from dragging in the water.

5. PORT LINES

NEW AFTERGUY Trim the afterguy to the current apparent wind angle. Help get the spinnaker pole set to the right height.

OLD SHEET Wind the lazy sheet around the after guy to prevent the sheet from dragging in the water.

6. MAINSAIL

Trim for the new apparent wind angle.