Ep 83 - Flying a Spinnaker Solo

This is a really basic introduction into flying a spinnaker very light handed or completely solo. all filmed off the west coast of Mull in the inner Hebrides. 

[@TonyKeyes]

John and Elizabeth, your voyaging logs and how-to videos are always equally enjoyable, but this one in particular is immensely useful. I appreciate all the time that goes into the sailing setup, the shooting and editing. Thank you!

[@CoricContessa32]

Thanks Tony, enjoy making them and delighted they are useful.

[@davidirwin4879]

Great episode John, confidence inspiring and encouraging for anyone sailing short handed

[@CoricContessa32]

Thanks Dave, it really was a joyful sail and ideally not daunting

[@stephenconway4976]

A master class. Really interesting to watch it done. I hope Elizabeth is well.

[@CoricContessa32]

Much better now thanks Stephen - and thank you

[@andrewdee4214]

Awesome! Great advice. We always say “ Look up Before you Hook up “ on a J Class

[@CoricContessa32]

Completely agreed. I should also have mentioned checking the halyard is on the head…..

[@bradleydaniels9639]

Super video thanks so much👍

[@CoricContessa32]

Our pleasure

[@normanrubenis7283]

Really great video, spinnakers scare me a little but in fairness, I'm a novice sailer so still have lots to learn. Thanks for sharing.

[@CoricContessa32]

Thank you for this, my experience is the other way round where on a racing boat The Spinnaker is part and parcel of every race. The big difference is doing on your own and I would say that all it means is just thinking it through much more thoroughly. I’m glad this has helped. Thank you very much for your comments.

[@Widgeon5113T]

I think that one of the key things that John demonstrated was that doing things slowly having thought each step through in advance removes some of the fear factor and leads to a smooth evolution. If the woodworking cry is 'measure twice, cut once', then the spinnaker equivalent is to look at least twice at each piece of string to see where it will be (under a guard-wire?) when it is loaded up.

[@CoricContessa32]

Thanks Nick, completely agree!

[@benkyzar7317]

John, I love the "how-to" videos. I noticed the spinnaker sheet is sometimes inside the lifelines and sometimes out. Do you normal set up the sheets outside the lifelines and then rerun the sheet inside the lifelines only when you expect to run deep downwind for an extended period of time? Thanks

[@CoricContessa32]

I set the sheets up outside of every thing - it would rarely be so far forward as to put real pressure on the stanchions. The guy however, on a shy reach could bear heavily on 3rd stanchion - some boats have a tiny little pole - a jockey pole / whisker pole to hold the guy to windward. Thanks very much for the positive comment - I enjoy doing them and I think it helps me too. :-)

[@thestardusterchronicles5462]

Do you think running the spinnaker halyard to the cockpit has much purpose, ir the pole topping lift? Particularly for short handed? Also apart from the gybe what other purpose do the guy lines serve that the sheet can't do? I have flown spinnakers without guy lines but I am pretty much self taught so always good to learn more. Nice video again by the way.

[@CoricContessa32]

Thank you for this, and good questions. We bring the halyard and the topping lift back into the cockpit because we only have one camcleat at the mast. I would feel nervous leaving either the topping lift or the halyard on the camcleat for a long period of time. Regarding having guys and sheets separate, I think it would be very difficult to fly the kite on a very shy reach unless guy was coming into the boat about midships, which sort of demands a separate rope. Like you, I have sailed a boat that has just sheets both sides, but they were much smaller boats. I would be interested to know if anybody’s done this on a Contessa, 32

[@thestardusterchronicles5462]

@@CoricContessa32 🤔 interesting, for the sake of simplicity, I may be that contessa. Instead of the guy I have thought about some sort of barber hauler to control the sheet. Meanwhile starduster is out of the water after a barge hit her on her mooring and I am recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon so probably won't be trying it this year. You are inspiring me to get up to Scotland next year though.

[@CoricContessa32]

Sorry to hear about your difficulties (boat and about the person). Be interesting to see how it works. Another thing we wanted when we were setting up the boat was to be able to race her according to class rules. I think that precludes any sort of barber haulers etc. Not a problem if you’re not racing. To be honest, I didn’t look at it in huge depth, but we copied the layout of other 32s that had done well racing.

[@thestardusterchronicles5462]

@@CoricContessa32 starduster is way beyond any sort of racing, at least class racing. She has electric drive which is too light.... according to Kitt. And the carbon fibre saloon table, steps and chart table is also out of class 😆

[@churchofthegreenflipflop2436]

Am I imagining things or are your sheets and lines etc. thinner than standard. They look very thin when on the winches.

[@CoricContessa32]

The sheets and guys are 10 mm, the halyard is also 10 mm, but the topping lift is 8 mm. is that what you were expecting?

[@TonyKeyes]

@@CoricContessa32 I have 12mm sheets and guys, and in the sort of light conditions where the kite is most useful for a cruiser, they're a bit heavy. So 10 sounds right to me.

[@danthelooser]

Hope your wife feels better

[@CoricContessa32]

She is bit better now, 48 hr viral thing we think

[@stephanecerisier5497]

Bonjour, pourquoi ne pas utiliser un spi asimetrique ?..., plus simple a utiliser en solo ...

[@CoricContessa32]

C'est une bonne question. Un Spinnaker symétrique vous permettra d'aller très loin dans le vent, alors qu'un asymétrique vous obligera à naviguer dans les angles. J'ai deux spi symétriques (un lourd dans un léger). Un peu de moi souhaite avoir aussi un asymétrique mais cela nécessite du matériel supplémentaire sur la proue pour obtenir le point d'amure à l'extérieur de la chaire.

[@stephanecerisier5497]

@@CoricContessa32 Tout a fait, vous avez raison, mais en solitaire il me semble plus facile de manœuvrer un spi asymétrique ... Pour ce qui est de la performance, nous ne sommes pas en régate ...

[@CoricContessa32]

@@stephanecerisier5497 C'est un bon point, j'ai réglé le bateau pour pouvoir le faire courir dans le respect des règles de classe. Cela n'inclut pas un asymétrique et en effet j'aurais besoin de faire quelques modifications afin d'obtenir le point d'amure vers l'avant de la chaire. Cela dit, j'ai vu des idées vraiment innovantes, et je vais peut-être troquer un des spi symétriques contre un asymétrique.