Cruising Spinnakers

Cruising Spinnakers

I have had a “cruising spinnaker” (asymmetrical spinnaker) on Snickerdoodle for many years.  And, I’ll have to admit that this sail doesn’t see much action.  I’ll fly it maybe half-a-dozen times per year.  BUT, it is a great downwind sail for broad reaching.

Here’s how I have the sail rigged –  

The spinnaker halyard is a separate line rove through a block on the very front of my mast head cap fitting.  Catalina Yachts actually designed the cap fitting with a “crane” that puts the block ahead of the forestay so that hoisting and dousing this sail is pretty easy.

There is a tack adjustment line that is rove from the sail’s tack corner through a block that’s secured to the stem fitting and then back to a cleat on the outside of the portside cockpit coaming.  With this adjustment line I can trim the tack corner higher or lower as needed for good sail shape.  Lower is for close reaching - - while higher is for broad reaching.

There are snatch blocks secured to the “T-rail” just aft of the forward part of the stern pulpit.  The two spinnaker sheets are rove through these snatch blocks – one sheet to each side of the boat… then the sheets are trimmed using the primary winches and cleats.  The loaded sheet extends from the sail’s clew corner directly to its snatch block.  The lazy sheet goes around the forward side of the forestay and rests on the bow pulpit – before extending back to the other snatch block.

To make hoisting and dousing easier, I’ve got a “Chute Scoop” – a sort of sausage bag with up-haul and down-haul lines.  Hoist the sail inside the Chute Scoop.  When everything is ready, pull the up-haul line to deploy the spinnaker.  When you are ready to take the sail down, pull the down-haul line to “bag” the sail before lowering.

Trimming this big sail is pretty easy - - remember that I’m only using this sail in breezes of about 12 knots and lower.  If I’m on a broad reach, I adjust the tack adjustment line so that the tack corner is about five or six feet above the deck.  I have a climber’s carabineer secured to the tack corner and clip it to the forestay to better control sag away from the centerline of the boat.  Sheeting the clew corner is straight forward.  Sheet out until the sails shoulder starts to fold in – then sheet in until the sail fills fully.  See-sawing the sheet back and forth keeps the sail pulling at its maximum.

I like jibing this sail like a big flag out in front of the forestay.  Here’s how it goes… when you are ready to jibe, start turning the boat and release the loaded sheet.  This allows the clew of the sail to “fly” like a big flag out in front of the boat.  As the boat turns and the mainsail jibes, start pulling in on the new loaded sheet.  The spinnaker will sort of turn inside-out.  Trim the sail and you are on your way.

On light breeze days when I want to sail for a considerable distance down wind, I’ll rig the cruising spinnaker to one side of the boat and my drifter jib with a whisker pole to the other side.  The wind angles off the drifter into the spinnaker making everything really work well. 

Another fun thing to do with the cruising spinnaker is to motor upwind on light breeze days, then set just the cruising spinnaker and sail downwind.  Since I have not set the mainsail, the spinnaker stays filled even on a downwind run.  It’s lots of fun.  In fact, learning to trim the cruising spinnaker without the mainsail up is much easier.