The joys and sorrows of spinnaker: here’s how to tame the “beast.” FIRST PART.

Just saying the word spinnaker is enough to cause panic and fear in many sailors, especially cruisers. Between tangon, straorze and strapogge, this sail is one of the most feared. But as is often the case, this fear is actually the result of a lack of knowledge. In fact, when we talk about slow boats, where by slow we mean nonplaning, if we want to sail at true stern angles (i.e., 150 degrees to 180), there is no sail that allows us to do this better than the symmetrical spinnaker.

SPINNAKER VS GENNAKER

It is a bit about the “war” of recent years that at least in fashion is won hands down by the gennaker. The latter is an asymmetric sail that does not need a tangon, at most a bowsprit, which is ideal if we want to sail around 120-130 degrees. Still referring to displacement boats, with the gennaker sailing more leaning than these degrees is difficult, especially if without bowsprit: the apparent, due to the boat’s low speed in relation to the wind, moves little toward the bow, the sail tends to collapse being covered by the mainsail, and eventually we will be forced to re-rotate and the speed we will make does not justify the extra way imposed. This means that if we have the wind in perfect stern we will be forced to make several edges, and gybes, with much more way. The gennaker on these boats is certainly perfect for cruising. If we start talking instead about racing between buoys or, for example, an ocean crossing, it becomes critical for nonplaning boats to address the spinnaker issue. It is a different matter for gliding. A boat such as a Tp 52, or a monotype, or a Class 40 (to name three different types), glides with ease and justifies the extra distance the gennaker requires us to go in the downwind descent at significant speed. Speed, which, by the way, causes the apparent to shift toward the bow and the angles of descent at the foresail to improve, even approaching those of a symmetrical sail. That is why we cannot talk about the goodness of a sail theoretically but must relate it to the type of boat and especially the type of sailing we intend to do.

THE PERFECT SPINNAKER ADJUSTMENT

Let’s start with his hoisting. If we are racing on the spinnaker, four members of the crew must work in synchrony: the helmsman, the halyard trimmer, the trimmer at the sheet and his helper at the boom. The hoisting starts, gradually, a few lengths before the buoy. The bowman must, previously, stretch a part of the base of the sail, the portion leading to the clew of the sheet, out of the bag and lay it on the edge so as to facilitate the opening of the sail as soon as it catches wind. Especially if hoisting takes place in a stiff breeze, the helmsman will need to position the boat already almost at the stern to avoid the risk of the strake getting caught with too tight an angle to the wind. Once the hoisting starts the most common mistake trimmers make is to immediately get anxious about capping the sheet. Nothing could be more wrong. Cocking the sheet early will only hide the sail, which will not yet be perfectly square as we hoist it, behind the mainsail. Doing so will make it difficult for the spinnaker to take in air and inflate, the helmsman will have to tack, and the sail will suddenly inflate putting stress on the rig and risking getting out of control right away. The trimmer must wait for the sail to get air, inflate, and only then caulk the sheet slightly to get it in control. By that time the trimmer aid should have already squared the tangon according to the intended gait. The lower you sail the more upwind the sail will be exposed, and vice versa. The two trimmers must work in synchrony. If the sheet is left the tangon goes square, and vice versa, this is when it comes to macroregulations. As for fine tuning, it will never be static. The trimmer will continuously, practically nonstop search the sail’s ears. That is, it will leave until the windward leading edge of the sail makes the typical “ear.” At that point it will dick slightly, and then it will leave again immediately afterward. Carrying a spinnaker too cocked, without going for the ear, means keeping it too much under the mainsail, depowering it and losing horsepower.

STRAPOGGY? NO THANKS

Jibing is one of the least pleasant experiences that can happen in sailing, especially since the so-called “unintentional jibe” obviously occurs under spinnaker. It happens when you are sailing very low in the stern in a strong wind, and it is the exposed upwind portion of the spinnaker that is pushing the boat to the lee with all that goes with it. The game then is to keep the spinnaker square enough to get down enough leaning, but not too much. In 25-30 knots we will never keep the tang fully exposed as we would perhaps do in 12-15, but we need to be a little more conservative, keep the sail less exposed and not always seek maximum leeway, to avoid unpleasant consequences.

In the video below, the boat sails very rested in winds certainly over 20 knots. The spinnaker rightly is not overly square. You can hear the tailer let go of the sheet and as soon as the boat heels slightly upwind, correctly, it cocks to make it flat again and give thrust. On the second roll, however, the gust is probably stronger, and although the tailer cocks the sheet the boat starts in straggle. We note two errors: the man on the arm of the spi is not ready to strall. The sail remains square in the same position until the boat jibes involuntarily. The spinnaker boom in these cases is a safety and its correction must be very dynamic. As soon as the boat hints at heeling to leeward, given the conditions, the tailer responds by stralling a few inches of boom while the sheet trimmer simultaneously pricks. By doing so we protect the sail behind the mainsail a little and expose a smaller portion of it upwind, in effect depowering it slightly. At the same time we also see that the helmsman does not anticipate the correction, he starts to move the rudder when the boat has already started and there is nothing more to be done.

The gybe under spinnaker, in its various conditions, deserves an in-depth study in its own right-don’t miss the next installment!

Mauro Giuffrè

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