Proper Running

With Monday comes a little schoolin' for y'all. Our friends at Halsey Lidgard Sailmakers, in this case Toby Halsey, wrote an article for us covering spinnaker trim. Enjoy the piece, and hopefully there's a little something for everyone here. The Ed

Lets face it, if you can sail your downwind legs with quick spinnaker hoists and drops and clean gybes without collapsing your kite, you're going to save a lot of time around the race course. There are however, different techniques used in light and heavy air to maximize your efficiency.

Have you ever rounded the windward mark in light air, hoisted the spinnaker quickly, and then ran over it? The lighter the breeze, the more difficult it is and the longer it takes to get it flying again. There are two good ways to avoid this common problem: first, the helmsman needs to have a slow, smooth bear away, and second, the genoa needs to come down quickly. The bear away needs to be smooth, slow, and gradual. Any jerky movements or a fast bear away will result in a velocity header. Because its light air, your going to be sailing hotter angles anyway, so keep the boat moving and the apparent wind on. The other thing helps is a very quick genoa drop. Whatever little air there is needs to get to the spinnaker immediately-don't block it with the genoa. A good pitman can have the genoa falling as he or she is tailing the spinnaker halyard. The bottom line is boat speed, so be patient, keep the heat on until your settled, and then try to start sneaking it down.

Classic symmetrical vs. asymmetrical!

In heavy air, the hoisting techniques are almost the opposite as light air. Because your best vmg is going to be very deep, the helmsman needs to bear away quickly as the main trimmer smokes the sheet and perhaps eases the vang so the boom doesn't hit the water. Pre-feed your afterguy to a foot past the headstay and sneak as much as you dare with hoist. If you overdo either of these two moves, it may result in the spinnaker filling before you want it to. As the boat begins to come upright hoist the spinnaker as fast as possible. The mainsail (fully eased) will block the wind just long enough to get the halyard made before it fills. If you start jumping the spinnaker before your pointed low, it will probably fill before you get the halyard to the top (and your pitman will hate you because he has to grind the last 8 feet). As the spinnaker is being hoisted, pull the poll back aggressively so that when it fills your very square. You may want to leave the leeward twing on (if its really breezy) to stop the kite from rolling too far to windward when it fills. If coordinated well, the spinnaker should "pop" full only a second or two after the boat stands upright and is headed in the right direction.

Steep n' Deep.

Light air gybing is often more difficult than heavy air gybing. Keeping the spinnaker full throughout the maneuver is paramount, and any mistakes seem to be amplified. Communication between the trimmer and helmsman is critical. The helmsman and trimmer should simultaneously turn the boat and begin to rotate the spinnaker at the same time. Even though this maneuver needs to be smooth, it can't be that slow. Once you bear away, your speed and apparent wind will drop out. The trimmer needs to ease the sheet fairly rapidly (don't smoke it) right to the headstay, while taking up the new sheet at a similar pace. When the pole gets attached to new side it should move the clew back off the headstay by a foot or so. Hold the main until just after the stern is fully through the wind. This is also a good time to implement the "roll gybe". Leave as many crew members on the windward side as possible so that when the boat gybes the weight will now be to leeward and the boat will want to round up onto the new gybe. Your boat is now out of the gybe, hot on the other gybe, until you are ready to work it down again.

Heavy air gybing is actually easier work for the trimmer. More often than not, because you are running very square, the trimmer simply needs to fly the spinnaker through the gybe by holding the two sheets stationary while the foredeck and pitman does their work. If you think about it, the boat never really has to change its direction by more than 20 or 25 degrees. Get the pole on the other side and then make your adjustments. If its really breezy, put some twing on and this will stabilize the spinnaker. It's always good to gybe when you can surf a wave. By increasing your boat speed, you take a bit of load off all the lines, especially the main sheet. It is ideal if you can pump the main into a surf and then into a gybe. By pumping the main, you will have it closer to the boat with no load on the sheet. Simply push it through the rest of the way while make your gybe.

07/13/2003