if conditions warrant, some boats, like J/70s, FJs, Collegiate 420s and Snipes, successfully wing for the entire run. And for other boats that carry asymmetric spinnakers, such as J/105s and Melges 20s, brief moments of winging can present gains, such as when jibing, (a late-main jibe), coming into a leeward mark gaining an overlap, or shooting the downwind finish line. It’s a powerful technique to have in your toolbox these days, so let’s dive deeper into the art of the wing, how to do it and when to do it.

There’s usually no ­question when in the middle wind ranges—from 8 to 14 knots—where the wing technique works well. By doing so, you’ll sail less distance without sacrificing much speed, getting you to the leeward mark sooner than someone who reaches back and forth. But in light air, it’s often too slow to wing, and the jib or kite doesn’t have enough pressure to fly well. Also, when the wind is light, the main falls into the middle of the boat, causing an unintentional jibe. You need enough pressure to hold the sails firmly in the winging ­configuration to make it work.

In the crossover zone, when you are unsure if winging will work, it can pay to give it a shot. If it doesn’t feel powered up and fast, abort the wing by continuing your turn, jibing the boom, and flattening onto the new jibe. The cool thing with this move is that you can get a boost of speed during the flatten, especially in a dinghy. Experiment with winging in the crossover wind range, then aborting, ­making it a late-main jibe.

At the other end of the spectrum, when it gets super windy, boats like the FJ, 420 and Snipe are still winging and might even plane on the wing. For heavier boats that wing, like the J/70, there comes a time to abandon the wing and start planing on the reach. It’s all about your best VMG to the mark, knowing your boat, and understanding when to transition as the breeze changes. In puffy conditions in the planing crossover range, 14 to 18 knots, the true masters of downwind morph from one mode to the next, putting hundreds of meters on the competition.

When winging, you must have a big lane behind you because winging is difficult in bad air. Also, boats behind you that are also winging throw a big wind shadow. Always work to find a nice lane before winging. Some people call this a seam in the fleet, a corridor of nice pressure with no boats behind you.

Winging Angles

For those unfamiliar with ­winging and the angle changes created by doing so, one way to think about it is to compare it to a symmetric spinnaker boat, such as an Etchells or Lightning, that can square the pole back in a medium breeze. In light air, those boats reach back and forth with the pole near the headstay. Once the breeze increases enough, they square the pole back and sail deep. This is a similar angle to winging. A boat with the spinnaker squared back is basically the same as being wing-on-wing. When in this mode, you’ll jibe through about 20 to 30 degrees.

I always look forward, toward the gate marks or finish line, to determine if I am sailing the least distance. Visualize your new angle if you were to jibe and question whether it would be closer to the mark. If so, and the lanes are free, do it. Usually when winging, I want to see the leeward mark right over the bow or just between the jib or spinnaker and the mainsail. While doing this, let’s say you get a lift. The jib or spinnaker suddenly feels less powerful, so you head up to get to the optimal angle again with the sheets pulling. Now the gate or finish line has dropped out of your field of vision, behind the main. That tells you it’s time to jibe. Conversely, if you get a big header while aiming at the gate and now appear overstood, abandon the wing and go back to a reach. The key is to point the boat at the gate or finish line in whatever configuration you need to be in for the given wind conditions, assuming you have a good lane.

Tactical Winging

A key to sailing well downwind in any boat is to satisfy two basic rules: Sail the jibe that takes you most directly toward the ­leeward mark, and sail in the most breeze. If you can sail toward the mark while in nice pressure and in a big lane, you’ll hit a tactical home run. When you are in a boat that has various modes, like reaching and winging, always use the most appropriate mode to help you. Here are a few examples:

A. You round the weather mark in a left shift and want to go straight downwind on the header. It’s blowing 10 knots, so winging will provide the best VMG. After rounding the weather mark, you reach for a bit until a lane opens up. Now you have to decide which jibe to be on while winging. You could simply wing on the starboard jibe, or jibe over to port and then wing. Because you are headed and happy, the correct move is to simply bear away and wing, staying on starboard.

B. You round the weather mark in a lift, so the game plan is to jibe to port. But there’s a cone of bad air at the top of the course. You reach for 30 seconds to a minute, eager to jibe and go the other way. With a train of boats sailing straight out of the mark with you, winging away would put you in bad air. So, the best move is to jibe onto a port reach to quickly exit the train of boats and their dirty breeze. Once clear of the bad-air zone, let’s say 50 to 100 meters, go into winging mode to sail the header toward the leeward mark on the port jibe. You’ll be in a nice lane, sailing low and fast toward the leeward gate.

C. You’re leading a tight race or might be just ahead of a group of boats, and you round the weather mark. Don’t immediately wing. If you do, you’ll likely get covered. Here, the move is to round the weather mark, reach for a while, and be patient. Once the boats behind you wing, then you can establish a nice lane and wing. If you reach for a while and feel like you should be winging, but no one around you is, and you want to get away from nearby boats, jibe to port, as mentioned earlier, reach for a little bit to get away from the group, and then wing into a nice lane.

D. If you round the weather mark in a lift and have no boats to worry about behind you threatening to steal your wind, a technique unique to the J/70 is you can get into a wing by bearing away and slowly jibing the boom. It allows you to quickly sail the other way downwind, as if you had completed a full jibe and then winged the kite. On smaller boats that accelerate more during maneuvers, it’s faster to jibe, flatten, and then wing the jib.

Practicing and Speed

Winging well takes practice and communicating to your team about the next move. It’s key that everyone is on the same page. With all the tactical options in the J/70, the fleet has developed its own lingo about turning while winging, “left turn 1 degree here” or “right turn 1 degree,” because up and down can get confusing with sails on both sides of the boat. For winging or exiting the wing in a J/70, identify the sail you are jibing. For example, say, “jibing boom to a wing,” “jibing kite to a wing,” or “exiting wing with boom over and a left turn.” In small boats, it’s a little more straightforward, but communications need to be defined regardless. A few examples are: “Let’s wing here,” “let’s jibe then wing,” and “let’s do a wing-on-wing jibe.” And to exit the wing, “jibing the boom to a reach.”

Sailing fast while winging is critical, so let’s discuss what you should focus on. The short version is, once you have winged a jib or a spinnaker, sail slightly up toward the jib or spinnaker on a broad reach, or a “high wing,” as some call it. You’re trying to not sail dead downwind because it’s faster to be slightly up toward the forward sail in a high wing. There’s a sweet spot, which is where the sail would want to fall in toward the boat and assume a reaching position, if you were to head up a few more degrees toward the jib or spinnaker. If you see that happening, bear away a few degrees until it’s stable and happy. At that angle, the jib or spinnaker will be powered up.

If you’re holding the sheet, you can feel the sail pulling nicely. Bear away a few more degrees to a dead downwind angle and the sail will lose a little pressure. Bear away a little more and you will feel the slowest winging situation possible—by the lee where the sheet pulls the least because the main starts covering the jib or spinnaker. I see a lot of kids doing this in the FJs and 420s, and sometimes adults in the J/70s. You can end up there by turning down accidentally, having a wave push the bow down, or possibly by a windshift lifting you. To avoid sailing too low or two high, stick to the rule of sailing high on the foresail, but not so high that it wants to collapse in on itself. This powered-up mode is fast. To keep it here, you need to constantly test the ups, look at the telltales and masthead fly, and feel the power in the sheet.

If you are at the perfect wing angle and notice a lift (the masthead fly goes from the weather corner of your boat to the center of the stern), the sheet loses pressure, or you just feel like the boat has lost pressure, head up if you want to continue straight. Or immediately jibe to a reach, throwing the boom over, flattening with extra speed onto a header, then bear away and wing again. The jibe maneuver when lifted is super-fast and allows you to quickly sail the header downwind. If performed before others around you, it allows you to lead on the new, long, headed tack. All of this is tactical gold.

Now that you know how and when it’s best to go wing-on-wing, let’s explore seven top winging moves that can make your race.

Cut the corner. Typically, everyone sails out of the weather mark on starboard, reaching, unless conditions call for an immediate jibe set. If you can wing before the boat in front of you, you cut the corner on them and still maintain a starboard-­tack advantage. The boat in front ends up in a difficult situation in that they want to jibe to aim for the gates, but you have borne away inside them and cut them off, and you’re still on starboard. I love using that move in a J/70. I’ve been passed by it, and I’ve passed boats using it.

Be the first to wing. If you round the weather mark with a big enough lead or a gap behind you and instantly wing, you can gain huge on the boats that have not yet done so. Doing that while leading can instantly break the race open. While others are reaching and waiting for the opportunity to wing, you’re already sailing deep, headed straight for the leeward mark, and you’re gone. You can end up winning the race by hundreds of meters. And if you happen to have a gap behind you, winging before the group ahead allows you to cut the corner on them.

Paint the competition into a corner. In the same realm of cutting the corner, this move occurs in the corner, near the layline. Let’s say you’re going downwind, reaching on port jibe, and following someone who is also reaching. As you approach the left corner (looking downwind), knowing they will jibe soon, wing behind them. Now you’re sailing deeper and cutting the corner. When they jibe, you now have a perfectly matched racing setup to jump them and steal their breeze. As the boats converge, watch their masthead fly to see where their wind is coming from, and then jibe over by simply throwing your boom with a right turn and flattening onto their breeze. It’s a quick move and takes the wind out of their sails, literally and figuratively. From here, either you roll them, or they’re forced to jibe back into the corner, reducing their options and forcing more maneuvers. You can also “paint into a corner” against groups of boats.

If in the back of the fleet, wing immediately. Another time to go right into the wing mode is when you’re doing poorly. Maybe you were OCS and went back now to find yourself in last place, desperately hoping to catch up. Wing-on-wing can give you that opportunity. Once rounding in last, you can always lighten the mood by pointing out the good news of having a massive lane, and then instantly wing. I’ve seen a lot of people in that position catch up a ton downwind just by getting into the wing and keeping it the whole run, sailing less distance.

Sail perpendicular. When coming into the finish line or a leeward gate, sail perpendicular to reduce distance. By winging, you cut the corner on any boats ahead that are reaching. I think of it as sailing one side of a triangle while they sail two, by extending forward, jibing and reaching back. You can get to the finish line sooner with this move, even if the wind is a little light to wing.

There is also a specific scenario coming into a gate where you can use it to get room. If you are closely trailing an opponent and both of you approach the gate just outside the zone (aiming at the middle of the gates), you can wing behind them toward the mark to enter the zone first while they extend forward, then jibe to head back and round the gate. You are now inside and have room. Their jibe opens their stern, and you have entered the zone first and inside. This doesn’t happen often, but it feels nice when it does. It leaves you in a much stronger rounding position to start the next leg.

Ping the competition. You’re on the port jibe near the layline, approaching the right-hand gate (looking downwind), and there are other port-jibe boats overlapped to your right. They’re going to have room on you, probably leaving you on the outside of a big pinwheel around the gate mark. In this situation, you can jibe to starboard and reach toward those boats to take them out past the layline, then lead them back clear ahead and rounding ahead. Chances are, they might not anticipate you doing this, but even if they do, they have to stay clear. For safety within the rules, do this well before the three-boatlength zone, maybe as far out as five or six lengths so there’s no question you’re outside the zone. The boats you’re reaching toward can even be winging on the starboard jibe, but they have to either head up or jibe if on port because you’re the leeward boat. In a classic match-racing move, you’ve reached them off the racecourse, forcing them to overstand. They’re typically flailing at this point and probably starting to yell; bear away once you feel the geometry is correct and jibe toward the mark, breaking the overlap with them and entering the zone clear ahead. We call this the ping move. It can also be done at a ­downwind ­finish line.

Vary modes to manage your lane. If you’re wing-on-wing and someone is sailing at a different angle, about to encroach on your breeze, go into reach mode until you find another clean lane. Then bear off and wing again. If you maximize your time in big seams or lanes, you can do some damage downwind.

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Spinnaker staysails have three specific tasks: cleaning up the wind going around the front of the mainsail, moving the center of effort forward to help balance the helm and adding more sail area. Genoa staysails are also used when jib reaching, but that’s mostly an offshore setup, and we’re going to focus sailing around the buoys. A spinnaker staysail has a subtle effect. It’s never going to make the boat just light up and really go, but if you average your speed with a staysail over the length of a leg, you’ll discover you’re definitely sailing faster, and the boat will be more controllable. On the TP52, we think it’s important enough to have the staysail on deck, plugged in and ready to go at the start of any race in which we might use it. On some boats, such as the Melges 32, the jib functions as a staysail, with much the same results.

For most high-performance boats, the staysail’s sweet spot is usually somewhere in the 9- to 15-knot range and 140 to 155 degrees off the wind. On smaller high-performance boats, they work best when you’re in the middle of the reaching range — not too tight and not too broad. With a symmetric spinnaker and sailing deep, say 160 or so, such as you might on a Santa Cruz 70, tack the staysail on the windward side of the boat, three-quarters of the way to the bow, which is like pulling the pole back. If you sail with the pole back 45 degrees, the staysail needs to be tacked to windward as well. It follows the pole. As a rule of thumb, however, anytime the pole is on the bow, then the ­staysail of some variety should be up.

At the top end of the staysail wind range, heavier boats start sailing deeper angles, and most high-performance boats just leave the jib up as a staysail instead of switching. Doing so saves the commotion of getting the jib down and the staysail up at the windward mark, then having to reverse the process at the leeward mark. It’s possible to do it efficiently, but you have to balance the commotion with just using the jib. The jib might not be as great a sail, but you already have it up, and in switching sails, you might lose more than you gain. If it’s right at the crossover for spinnaker staysail use, one trick is to set the staysail on the final leg, so it only has to be deployed and not taken down.

At the lower end of the staysail wind range, there’s a risk the staysail will take pressure off the spinnaker. As the wind drops, there will usually be pressure on the staysail sheet, but the spinnaker sheet pressure will get lighter. To compensate, the spinnaker trimmer will end up oversheeting. The spinnaker becomes unstable, and things quickly go bad. So, the toughest part is at that transition point, which varies from boat to boat. You might discover that the moment you put the staysail away, spinnaker sheet pressure increases, the trimmer can ease the sheet out again and you’ll be able to sail a bit lower.

The type of spinnaker you’re using and the conditions figure into when to use a staysail, especially in the lower-wind transition range. If you’re sailing with a light-wind spinnaker at the top of its range, you can deploy the staysail at a lower windspeed than with a heavier spinnaker at the bottom of its range because you can maintain pressure with the lighter-air spinnaker, but that will be more difficult with a bigger chute, with its heavier material. If you’re in a building breeze with a lighter chute and you’re thinking, I wish I had the big spinnaker up right now, that’s a really good time to use a staysail. The key is to use the staysail to add pressure to the boat but not take too much away from the spinnaker.

If it’s choppy and the boat becomes unstable, the staysail will not help because it once again takes wind away from the spinnaker. It’s also tough to use a staysail in puffy or shifty conditions, or if you’re having to mode and reach around. If you get a big header, it’s time to furl the staysail. Or, if you come into some dirty air, such as at a leeward mark, or the wind gets light, your spinnaker might start getting a little soft, so furl the staysail. The same is true if you have to begin sailing a deep to get away from the bad air. If in doubt about whether the staysail is helping, try furling it. If the other sails immediately start showing more pressure, then you’ve made the right call.

Trimming

If the staysail is trimmed correctly, it will clean up the flow on the leeward front side of the main. The ­staysail does this like a biplane wing, essentially bringing the breeze around the leeward side of the main and making a slot for the wind. When you look at the sail from the back, the trim of the staysail should match the trim of the main. While the goal is to match the twist of the main and spinnaker, it’s tough to do that because they’re completely different types of sails. The staysail is kind of halfway between, creating progression of twist from the spinnaker to the staysail to the main.

Rule No. 1 is to never, ever overtrim a staysail. You always want the luff a bit soft, so the windward telltales are always lifting. The top of the sail has to be really twisted to match the spinnaker, and the bottom of it must be flatter to match the main, so it’s very common that the top of the sail will appear undersheeted and the bottom oversheeted. It’s tough to get it just right because the sail has a really short chord length, and it’s a really high-aspect sail. If you get a big header that causes the spinnaker to start to luff, quickly burp the staysail sheet. That will momentarily take the staysail out of the equation and allow the flow to reattach to the spinnaker. Once the chute is full, retrim the staysail.

The staysail tack position and the size of the staysail are critical. Usually they’re tacked about 45 percent of the way aft from the spinnaker tack to the mast. Tack the staysail too far forward, and it will take away from the spinnaker. If the staysail is too big, you’ll end up taking pressure off the spinnaker as well.

Jibing with a Staysail

Most boats furl the staysail just before the jibe and unfurl it after the boat is to the new downwind angle. One common mistake is to open the staysail too early after the jibe. Because the staysail is set up to be sheeted at a lower sailing angle, unfurling it early only heels the boat and obstructs flow through the slot. For instance, if you typically come out of the jibe 10 degrees higher than your actual jibing angle, the staysail is going to be too full in the bottom for the correct sheet position. So, keep the staysail rolled up until the boat gets down to its normal downwind angle.

Using Jibs as Staysails

A nonfurling jib can be used to act as a staysail, although not as efficiently. The problem is that they don’t have enough shape in them to really do the job, plus they aren’t sheeted in the right place for a reaching staysail. But they can still help. Just be careful during spinnaker sets or when coming out of jibes. If the jib is up and sheeted, you’ll have to sail pretty high to get air between the spinnaker and the jib, making it very likely you’ll wipe out. To prevent that, ease the sheet until the sail luffs, or drop the jib halyard a few feet just as the spinnaker is going up. This allows the top of the jib to twist open. Of course, the sail will also come down a bit, allowing a lot more air between the spinnaker and the jib. Basically, you’re pretending only the bottom half of the jib is there, which still helps balance the boat, allowing you to turn down more efficiently and, once again, allowing more air to get to the spinnaker. You’re basically making the jib disappear for those few key seconds.

Think of staysails this way: There is only a certain amount of pressure you can get from any given wind velocity. A staysail will give you a little bit more, but it takes a percentage away from the spinnaker. If you’re sailing in moderate air without a staysail, you might be getting 80 percent of your pressure from the spinnaker and 20 percent from the mainsail. Add a staysail, and you take 10 percent away from the spinnaker, just a little from the main, but add an extra 5 percent to the whole equation. It’s a small net gain, but as long as it’s used at the correct time, it’s a gain.

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The true grade of any spinnaker douse on an asymmetrical sportboat can’t be recorded until that boat has rounded the ensuing top mark. Did the spinnaker hoist easily and fill correctly the second time? Did one or more crewmembers have to spend any portion of the beat down below repacking the kite?

Along with a tidy and timely takedown at the leeward mark, a top-shelf maneuver requires the answers of “yes” and “no,” respectively, to those key questions. The best A-sail drops allow the team to cleanly hoist the spinnaker at the next mark with little or no clean-up work in between. This, in turn, allows for maximum hiking effort, which is crucial since asymmetrical sportboats are usually lighter than symmetrically-rigged boats and more sensitive to weight on the rail.

Generally speaking, retractable bowsprits reduce the number of crew required to sail a boat, and make the downwind maneuvers slightly less complicated. However, while the douse may require fewer bodies, timing and technique are just as important, especially when the goal is to get the spinnaker below decks and ready to be re-hoisted before turning upwind.

What is the best technique for dropping the spinnaker on a 30- to 45-foot sportboat? This usually depends on the approach to the leeward mark. In this article I will outline the key components of three different A-sail drops. Mastering all three will enable your team to handle the toughest conditions with aplomb, and provide your tactician the confidence to make the right call regardless of the maneuver’s level of difficulty.

The Windward Drop

This is the safest of the three drops, and it’s quite easy. The sequence goes like this:

1. Release the tack line and the working sheet completely.

2. Using the windward spinnaker sheet, pull the clew around the headstay.

3. Ease the halyard and pull the kite into the hatch, starting with the center of the foot.

As with most drops, getting the helmsman to put the bow close to dead downwind, which reduces the apparent wind, will make things a lot easier on the crew. One person, maybe two depending on the size of the sail and the wind strength, will be needed to overhaul the windward sheet from behind the windward shrouds. Another person, most likely the bowman, positions himself just in front of the front hatch to gather the foot and feed it to the final member of the takedown team, who is down below. This crewmember’s job is to pull the sail through the hatch as fast as possible. The person on deck at the hatch has to make sure the foot does not go in the water. This is crucial. The person at the shrouds should pull the clew back quickly and then help get the sail down by pulling along the leech tape. Running the leech tape during a douse will help keep the sail from twisting, and ensure it’s ready for the next hoist.

The Jibe Drop

Sometimes called a Mexican drop or a Kiwi drop, this is a really slick drop when done properly, but the timing is more difficult than a windward drop because the douse must coincide with a perfect turn from the helmsman.

1. Start turning the boat into a jibe

2. The trimmer and grinder work together to oversheet the spinnaker, using the sheet that was controlling the sail before the jibe. Ideally, the spinnaker will be trimmed in so that the foot of the sail can be grabbed by a member of the bow team. In heavier air, this can be difficult and may require starting the overtrim earlier.

3. The pit person should open the halyard clutch when the sail is above the boat. Too late is better than too early. The sail should blow into the mast and rigging and then down onto the foredeck, if it is dropped too early the sail will fall into the water.

4. Starting ideally with the center of the foot, the bow team pulls the sail down the hatch. Once the bow team gets hold of the foot, the trimmer should strip the sheet from the winch, enabling it to run free as the sail is sucked below. The last thing to be released is the tack line. When the bowman has the foot in the boat, he should call for the release of the tack line.

The positions of the bow team remain largely the same as for the windward drop. One twist, however, is that the bowman must duck underneath the foot of the spinnaker as the boat jibes and get to the new windward side. The jib must be tended during this maneuver. It’s best to keep it a little overtrimmed during the douse to keep the battens from wrapping around the headstay and to keep the spinnaker from blowing out to leeward of the boat.

The crucial part of the drop is the turning of the boat. The bow needs to come down into a jibe-as with the windward drop, the closer the boat is to dead downwind, the less apparent wind there is-but then stay low after the jibe until the sail is down the hatch. This can produce a long, slow turn, so the tactician and helmsman must ensure the approach vector to the leeward mark positions the boat with enough distance to windward of the mark to complete a proper turn for this drop. When done properly, the sail should almost fall down onto the deck. As with the windward drop, someone should follow the leech tape down to keep the sail clean for the next set.

The Leeward Drop

The easiest drop with a symmetric spinnaker is the toughest for asymmetrical sailors.

1. The helmsman needs to bring the bow down enough to allow the bowperson to grab the foot of the sail. This may also require the trimmer and grinder to bring the sail in. For this douse, a retrieval line attached to the middle of the foot of the spinnaker can be useful.

2. Once the foot is within the control of the bow person, it’s time to drop the sail. The first third of the halyard should be eased very fast to unload the sail and allow the bow team to get the foot under control. From that point, the pit person will need to watch the bow team as they gather and drop the sail accordingly, making sure to keep it out of the drink.

3. The tack line is eased last.

A more challenging variation on the leeward drop is the high-angle leeward drop, where the option of heading down to take the load off the sail isn’t available. Releasing the sheet will turn the spinnaker into a big flag out in front of the boat. The only way to unload the sail is by releasing the halyard. Once the sail is unloaded, then the sheet has to be overtrimmed so the bow team can get their hands on the foot. The sail will be very close to the water, or even in it, but as long as the foot of the sail does not hit the water the sail will came onboard relatively easily.

Aside from the greater loads, this drop can require the bow team to pull the spinnaker over the lifelines and under the foot of the upwind headsail. It can also require the crew to work on the leeward rail, which may be underwater. It’s best to avoid this type of drop if possible, even if that means going to the unfavored gate, or doing a really sharp turn. The cost of a botched spinnaker takedown can be significantly worse.

Each of these douse techniques should become an integral part of your team’s playbook. During the course of a long series or regatta, you’re likely to have the opportunity to use all of them.

The afterguard must understand what is involved in each drop and consider these factors when deciding on the final approach to the leeward mark. Having a clear plan going into the mark will help the boathandling, and allow for a better escape. The amount of distance to leeward needed to complete the drop in a timely manner must be factored into layline decisions. A perfect layline call usually puts a boat two or three boatlengths to windward of the actual layline.

Having the sail put away as the boat rounds the mark, with the whole crew on the rail, should always be the goal. If you have to err, do so on the side of being conservative and taking the spinnaker down early. The losses that come from a twist in the sail at the set or the sail getting in the water at the drop can be enormous.

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In this series, we’ve already covered tacks and jibes. Now for a few words on spinnakers. Fortunately, for the most part, the key principles apply to both asymmetrical and symmetrical spinnakers.

Get Prepared Early

If you’re waiting until the weather leg to get things hooked up, you’re too late.

For course racing (windward/leewards), the marks will be to port. With the exception of an occasional jibe set, sets will be simple bear aways. That means the gear (halyard, sheets, tack line for asymmetrical) will be to port.

I’m a big fan of launching from the forward hatch, just like the big boys do (even on older designs). Everything can be hooked up before the start, except for the spinnaker halyard on boats using genoas.

For non-overlapping designs, the halyard can be hooked on from the get-go. Secure the tail to a keeper shackle (tape, Velcro, or tie) at the shrouds to keep it out of the way going upwind. If you have a genoa, wait until the penultimate tack to hook the halyard to the head, then caddie it (make sure it doesn’t get hung up on sail or spreader during the last tack).

If you have more than one spinnaker, get your tactician/speed doctor to choose a sail before the start. If you’re using a spinnaker pole, it can be hooked to the mast at the base or to a shroud with the afterguy. Have the topping lift and forgery already in place so it’s only a matter of popping the pole into place on the mast and hoisting the topping lift.

Always do a practice before the start of a race. It will insure that you have everything hooked up correctly the first time. This is particularly important on modern, high-performance boats with “string drop” systems. Invariably the string for the drop system will wrap around something it is not supposed to – a practice run will help you fix that.

Take your Time, Stay on the Rail

Just as “ready about” prior to a tack is not a signal for a mass exodus from the weather rail, getting ready for a spinnaker set only needs minimal movement. The last thing you want to do as you’re struggling to make the weather mark is to have crew out of position and lots of movement. If there’s an offset mark, nothing has to happen until the weather mark is rounded.

On symmetrical boats, the only required movement is the bow person moving to get the pole up and the spinnaker pulled to meet the outboard end of the pole. The topping lift can be tailed by the pit person from the weather rail, as can the slack in the afterguy. On asymmetrical boats, only the tack needs to be pulled out to the end of the pole (which may need to be pulled out as well). Again, you only need the bow person and a pit assist pulling from the rail. In light air, pull from wherever you are, but stay out of the way and keep your weight low. There is absolutely no need for any other crew to be out of position.

The spinnaker sheet itself is the last thing you need to worry about. It doesn’t need to be touched until the sail is 75 percent of the way up.

The Magic Moment

It’s always a big rush to get the spinnaker up, but it doesn’t need to be. Relax. Don’t move until the boat has turned down.

The magic moment – when everything should happen – is when it goes flat. Then spring into action. Jump the halyard like a mad man (watching to make sure the sail isn’t hung up and going to rip on something). Take a little tension on the sheet to separate the corners, but don’t pull the clew much past the shrouds. The sheet should be under-trimmed so the sail doesn’t fill on the way up. Trim only once at full hoist. A call of “made” from the person jumping the halyard at the mast is helpful.

On symmetrical boats, pull the pole back to target angle as the sail is hoisted. Don’t pull too far aft. With an asymmetrical, be ready to ease the sheet as soon as it fills. It will probably be over-trimmed initially, but don’t worry.

The Perfect Turn

The goal is to turn smoothly from close hauled to broad reach. Turn too fast and you’ll end up too deep (with the wind too far aft). The spinnaker will blanket behind the mainsail, twist, and collapse. Turn too slowly and you won’t get down far enough. The boat will heel over, making the spinnaker hard to get up as it fills too early. As with tacks and jibes, there is a perfect exit angle in the middle. Get it right, and the rest of the set will follow.

Get the Jib Down

The spinnaker will not fill until the jib is down (or at least eased and completely luffing). The lighter the air, the more important it is to get the jib out of the way. The headsail, however, can be coming down as soon as the spinnaker is more than 75 percent of the way up.

In heavy air with a small jib, it’s okay to leave the sail up and keep the weight off the bow while you get the crew in the right places and the boat under control. Just make sure it is well-eased.

Freeze!

Movement kills speed. As soon as the sail fills, get in appropriate spots for the conditions: forward and leeward in light air; aft and to weather in more breeze. Then freeze!

Settle the boat down. Don’t panic getting the outhaul cunningham backstay off. That can come anytime. If you’ve taken the jib down and want to flake it, wait. For the most speed, freeze as soon as the spinnaker is up and full.

Spinnaker sets don’t have to be a point of stress or downfall. Prepare, plan, stay relaxed, and let the magic happen! If you’d like to read the other articles in the series on make or break moves, check our our pieces on tacking and jibing.

The post The Key to Better Spinnaker Sets appeared first on Sailing World.

On boats with asymmetrical spinnakers I like to connect the two sides of the ‘Y’ sheet with a soft shackle that also goes to the spinnaker. This saves weight over a conventional shackle and creates an easy connection with a short distance between the sail and where the two spinnaker sheets come together. The shorter the distance between the sail and the ‘Y’, the less the clew travels past the forestay in the gybe and the sooner it fills on the new side. I sew a Velcro strip around one part of the shackle (see picture) so that the soft shackle stays with the ‘Y’ sheet when open. This is beneficial when you have to quickly disconnect or re-run a sheet, replace one sheet, or even quickly replace a soft shackle.

On most boats I will keep one spare spinnaker sheet with soft shackle down below as a spare side, changing sheet, or Code Zero sheet. While you’re at it, make sure your spinnaker sheets are as tapered as possible. Whether you have an asymmetrical or a symmetrical, light air trimming will be easier with less material weighing the clew down.

The post Tweaked: Spin Sheet Shackles appeared first on Sailing World.

Blast reaching under an asymmetrical spinnaker can be, well a blast, but can also take a turn for the worst fast if you broach or otherwise wipeout. With much racing time these days spent sailing windward leeward courses, the art of sailing on a windy tight reach at the edge of control has almost become a lost art. It is a particularly useful skill in point to point and distance races. So how do you keep on the hairy edge while avoiding the wipeout?

Here are Dave’s 4 quick tips for maintaining control when tight reaching with the kite up.

1. Have Patience

The first mistake is to try to head up and sail towards the mark before you are ready. No matter how badly you want to get there, you have to everyone in position, hiking like crazy with all the weight well aft before you start to head up. Weight is the key. If people are still on the bow, or trimmers are down in the boat you are not ready to go. When the spinnaker is first hoisted start at a comfortably low angle, get everyone set, then work gradually up. Don’t worry about the mark.

2. Ease in the Puffs

It’s all in the hands of the trimmers. Every puff needs to be met with a generous ease of mainsail and spinnaker sheet (if you are jib reaching, ease the jib). As soon as you feel the heel start to increase, ease. Have a crew member on the rail calling puffs. Ease aggressively initially, then trim in as the power of the puff is turned into speed. Sails will have to move in and out constantly. It is a sport! A couple of notes on trim. The spinnaker luff should be tight. If using an asymmetrical pull the tack line down tight. Fly the pole low with symmetrical sails. A tight luff will pull the shape forward and open up the back end of the sail. If you are jib reaching you need to setup and outboard lead on the rail. Mainsail trim is largely a function of vang tension. Vang should be well eased in general and let off in the puffs or whenever there is too much heel.

3. Anticipate and Drive Aggressively

Upwind it is all about minimizing rudder movement and staying smooth. On a windy reach you can be aggressive. The helm is going to have plenty of load. You can fight it. The real trick is to anticipate. As the puff hits and the boat starts to heel bear off aggressively to keep the boat flat. Once the power of the puff has been turned into speed head back up. The faster you are going the easier it is to sail higher angles. Sync with your trimmers, bearing off as they ease, heading up as they re-trim. Watch the leading edge of the spinnaker and don’t get ahead of your trim. Notice I have never suggested looking at the mark. The mark is irrelevant. You will either make it or not as you average out bearing off in the puffs and then back up in the light spots. If you are not going to make it don’t panic. There will be a perfect moment where if you take the spinnaker down you end up on a comfortable jib reach to the mark.

4. If You do Wipeout…

You will periodically wipe out, there’s no way around it. If you don’t, you aren’t trying hard enough. First, trimmers should keep easing even if the sail collapse if there is too much heel and the boat is rounding up. Let the vang go completely. As a helms-person if you realize you are losing it do the opposite of what your instinct tells you to do. Stop fighting and let the boat head up and broach. The trick is to maintain enough speed and attached flow of water on the rudder that when the sails luff completely and the boat starts to flatten out you can bear off. As the boat comes down with sails flogging the trimmers need to be ready. As soon as the boat goes flat trim like crazy. You will have a long way to go since you let the sails completely out. You will end up well low of course. That’s okay. You are starting over. It is just like you sailed when you first put the spinnaker up. Get the boat under control and then gradually head back up.

Tactical Note:

The classic tactical response when faced with a reach which is a marginal spinnaker carry is to head up early in the leg so you can set the spinnaker later. In reality, the opposite approach is best. It’s okay to come around the mark and hold for a couple of minutes to check things out. But as soon as it looks like you might be able to carry, go for it. Worst case scenario is that you will end low of the mark and have to jib reach at the end. That is still faster than jib reaching at a less than ideal angle for the whole leg. More often than not, you will make it!

The post 4 Tips for Reaching in Heavy Air appeared first on Sailing World.

Essentially, you’re balling the thing up, tossing it airborne, and pulling out the corners to fill it. Most spinnaker twists start at the head, from reversed flow off the back of the mainsail before it fills. That doesn’t happen with this technique.

Stuart says they used to use a strop with snap sewn onto the Soling spinnaker to keep it closed, so for the IOD spinnaker we had to rely on a nice tight roll to prevent it from coming undone. This technique worked incredible on the IOD, as well, and we had the best sets of the fleet. The roll can be done before the first set of the day and between races. Give it a try…what’s old is new!

The post The Lost Art of the Spinnaker Roll appeared first on Sailing World.

In the previous issue we visited Cornell University’s wind tunnel to see how wind flows around an asymmetric spinnaker. We learned a lot, of course, especially the importance of being dynamic with our trim, so we went back to the tunnel to explore some key points of symmetric spinnaker flow and trim.

Before stepping into the tunnel, I had a naïve vision of attached flow on both sides of the spinnaker. What I quickly discovered, instead, was that the smoke showed large areas of stagnation and early flow separation. Thinking our 3D printed plastic test spinnaker was too rigid, or its shape flawed, we went out and placed telltales on my J/24 spinnaker. Our real-world tests confirmed our wind-tunnel findings: The flow is there, but it’s less than ideal. The difficulty in getting flow to go the way we want, and keeping it attached as long as possible, emphasizes how important and attentive trimming really is.

Flow goes in a remarkably different direction in reach mode than it does in run mode. In reach mode, the wind flows roughly horizontal, entering the luff (windward, pole side) and exiting the leech (behind the main). In run mode, wind flows vertically, entering near the head and exiting from the foot. This is why, in strong winds, we see wind ripples on the water in front of the bow. There’s often a misconception about these basic flow concepts, particularly with run-mode, top-down.

Reach to VMG Downwind

With predominantly windward-leeward courses, reach mode is used in lighter winds to sail angles downwind to VMG. The basic flow experienced is from luff to leech horizontally across the spin. Keeping in mind this cross flow, here’s some guidance to achieve a good downwind VMG reach-mode shape.

Pole angle: Set the pole perpendicular to the apparent wind, and then a fraction aft of that. Use the masthead fly as a reference. In a lull, the apparent wind moves forward because the boat carries momentum, and its component of the apparent wind becomes bigger. When this happens, the pole needs to be eased forward for a short time, until the boat slows, and then readjusted once the driver finds the new wind angle.

In a puff, the pole won’t need to be moved much. Instead, the driver will be able to sail deeper as the boat accelerates. Once into the new angle, the pole will be able to be moved aft as the spinnaker is shifted to windward for the lower, VMG course. With the sheet trimmed correctly, the foot should have shape to it. If the foot looks too round, the pole is likely too far forward. If the foot is flat, or stretched, it’s too far aft.

Pole height: Pole height sets the spinnaker’s luff tension. Set the topping lift so the “tack” is slightly lower than the clew. A low pole tightens the luff, making the wind’s entry angle more consistent while keeping the draft forward and the leech open. Lowering it creates a shape that’s a little more like an asymmetric spinnaker. Because the spinnaker hangs on its weight, the luff falls in lulls and rises in puffs, so the topping lift will have to be adjusted to keep the height low relative to the clew as conditions change. The luff should break evenly along the leech, from top to bottom. If the pole is too low, the luff will be very sensitive to trim. If it’s too high, the top of the leech will curl well before the rest of the sail.

Sail trim: Starting from the luff, encourage flow toward the leech on both sides. To optimize attachment, trim so the luff barely curls all the time, indicating the front edge of the luff is parallel to the wind to get flow started on both sides. Trimmers often take this too far by trimming too loose with a lot of curl. Wind tunnel-results show under-trimming inhibits flow over the windward side of the spinnaker. Over-trimming results in early separation along the leeward side.

Apparent-wind angles change in reach mode, even in steady winds, so the sheet needs to be trimmed constantly to test the edge of this curl. It’s better to anticipate and make consistent small changes to trim so the sail is always at the edge, rather than reacting late and having to make substantial changes. A quiet ratchet block, a sheet with lots of intermittent large trims, lots of curl or no curl at all are all signs of sheeting incorrectly. Just a hint of curl with constant yet small clicking from the sheet ratchet is perfect.

Heel angle: Keep the boat flat, or heel it a little to leeward. With a flat boat, gravity brings the spinnaker to windward, which is good. Some boats do need a little heel to reduce wetted surface area and to balance the helm. If it’s really light, the main and spinnaker tend to fall in on themselves if they’re too flat, so extra heel may be needed to use gravity to help keep shape in both main and spin. You can’t go wrong with a perfectly neutral helm, and it’s always fast to keep the heel such that the tiller is dead-centered in the boat.

The mainsail: In reach mode, the spinnaker is helping direct flow through the slot between itself and the main. The main is therefore integral to the working of the spin. The apparent wind is further aft at the top of the main because the true wind is stronger up there, thus the apparent-wind vector is moved aft. Set the vang so the top batten is angled just slightly outboard of parallel-to-the-boom. Don’t set it and leave it: Puffs will open the leech so more vang will be needed, and it will need to be eased for lulls. Also, trim the main so it’s not luffing. My default is to ease until I see luff or back wind, then trim in until any luff is solidly gone. If there’s a big change in the spinnaker sheet, then a big trim in mainsheet is probably due, too.

Steering: While sailing wide angles to optimize VMG downwind, the driver is always steering as low as possible without losing too much speed. To do so, the driver is steering a lot trying to keep the apparent-wind angle constant. Essentially, the boat is heading up in the lulls and down in the puffs. In puffs, the boat accelerates and the apparent wind goes forward, allowing deeper sailing angles while keeping the apparent-wind angle about the same. A lull slows the boat, bringing the apparent wind aft, requiring hotter angles to keep the apparent wind the same. Even a small difference in wind can make a big difference in driving angle, so the steering angle is perhaps even more important than trim in this light-air, downwind reach mode.

Symmetric Spinnaker Run Mode

When the wind is strong enough to lift the weight of the spinnaker up and away from the boat you’re switching into run mode. Spinnakers are designed with shape up top and an open foot, so in downwind mode, the wind can start its journey up top and escape out the bottom. With the top-down flow concept in mind, let’s explore our tools in run mode.

Pole angle: Experiment with moving the pole aft of the apparent-wind being perpendicular to the pole. The idea is to get it rotated to windward and away from the main’s wind shadow.

Pole height: Set the topping lift so the luff clews are parallel to the water. In this mode, the boat will be heeled to weather, so relative to the boat, this will mean the luff clew is higher than the leech clew, yet relative to the water, the clews are the same height off the water. Your go-to guide is to have the sail’s center vertical seam perpendicular to the horizon, independent of the amount of heel.

Sheet trim: Trim a little bit tighter than curl. The trimmer can ease to luff curl occasionally to make sure it’s in the right range, but ultimately the spinnaker should look symmetric. The challenge is to balance trimming hard enough to get the spinnaker clews spread to get projected area while still ensuring the foot is loose enough for air to escape. These two concepts are contrary to each other, so experimenting is necessary. Apparent wind angles don’t change as radically as they do in reach mode, and it’s not as important to keep it at the edge of curl, so the changes in trim are much more subtle. Lots of curl, a stretched foot, and lots of big sheet movements are all signs that something is wrong.

Heel angle: In run mode, we heel to windward so the spin hangs down vertically from the mast and therefore out from behind the main. It also can reduce wetted surface area. On most boats, I like it best when we heel enough to windward to create a little helm pressure. It’s about right when I have gentle weather helm and the masthead fly shows the main is only covering a small amount of the spinnaker’s upper leech.

Switching Modes

Because the two modes have different setups and trims, recognizing when to be in true run mode versus when to use reaching mode to VMG down a run is not easy. The decision is made be by feel. On our boat, if we are in reach mode and the wind increases enough that I think we can transition to run mode, I bear off and ease the main. The team rolls the boat to windward while the trimmer raises the pole and shifts the spinnaker to windward out from behind the main. When in light run mode, if I feel stagnated wind on my neck and can sense the boat decelerating, I head up onto reach mode. If there’s a big enough wind change to warrant a transition to/from either mode, the pull on the sheet changes significantly, so our trimmer and I are often advocating switching modes at the same time.

Another excellent clue is the shape of the spinnaker. When fully supported with pressure, the spinnaker flies high, which is a sure sign to be in run mode. When sagging, it is time to go high onto VMG reach mode. If we can’t decide which mode, we default to reach mode because high and fast is not a disaster.

I find the lighter the boat, the more radical the transition. A dinghy might be in the VMG reach downwind mode with the pole forward to the forestay, but just one more knot of pressure and downwind run mode pays. Keelboats, however, have a longer transition with the pole incrementally going aft over a significant range as the wind increases. The heavier the boat the windier it needs to be to get into the true top-to-bottom flow of run mode. These transitions need to be decisive and well choreographed with the team because the boat cannot get stuck between modes.

Symmetric Spinnaker Flow: Reach mode

Here’s what we see in the wind tunnel when the 3D sail is trimmed on a reach, with the apparent wind at approximately 90 degrees (viewed from the bottom of the sail plan).
1. Smoke source: A horizontal line of smoke flows across the main and spinnaker, about halfway up the mast.
2. Support to hold the 3D printed mainsail and spinnaker in place during tests.
3. Wind attaches to the spinnaker and splits, flowing along both sides of the spinnaker (green) and mainsail (blue).
4. Backside spinnaker flow: The wind attaches to the back of the spinnaker for about half the distance to the leech before it detaches.
5. Movement in the slot: On a reach, the wind flows across the face of the spinnaker, keeping flow attached all the way along the back of the main. Wind flows across the spinnaker, not downward from head to foot, as it does on a run.
6. Stagnation is the area where separation happens behind the spinnaker.
7. Note how the flow is turbulent for quite some distance to leeward and behind.

Run Mode Steering Technique

The driver is constantly experimenting with sailing as close to dead down wind as possible without loosing speed. If it’s marginally windy enough to be in run mode, slightly hotter angles need to be sailed, or the boat stalls. As the wind gets strong enough to be solidly into the downwind mode, angles can be almost “DDW.”

I look at my masthead fly to see if it the main is blocking the spin or not. If it is, I head up until the wind has a clear shot. My trimmer is usually barking, “Head up 5 degrees” anyway because what I see with my fly he feels as no pull on the sheet. Conversely, as the wind increases, the wind holds the spinnaker up better and we are able to shift it to windward away from the main and I can bear off, with my fly showing my main is not shadowing the spinnaker, and my trimmer says, “Down 5.”

Riley Schutt contributed to this story and conducted the wind-tunnel visualizations in the Cornell Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratories, where he is a PhD candidate of Professor Charles Williamson. Schutt has recently been a designer with Volvo Ocean Race and America’s Cup teams. Williamson is an avid Laser sailor.

The post Flow Control of the Kite appeared first on Sailing World.

Melges 32 trim

Trimmer Scott “Chuck” Norris is quick to give credit where it’s due. He made his name in the Melges 32 class aboard Jeff Ecklund’s Star, with Harry Melges trimming the main, calling tactics, and liberally sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of sailing a planing boat. Norris was hardly a greenhorn, however, having won the 2003 Etchells Worlds with Ken Read and the 2005 J/24 Worlds with Anthony Kotoun. He was, and still is, a sought-after Melges 24 crew. When Ecklund took a hiatus from Melges 32 sailing, Norris was snapped up by Jason Carroll’s Argo program. As we went to press, Norris, Carroll, and the rest of the Argo team, which won its second consecutive national championship off Newport, R.I., in July, were prepping for the 2012 Melges 32 Worlds on the same waters in late September.

When you transition from a displacement boat—whether it has a symmetric or asymmetric spinnaker—to a planing sport boat such as a Melges 32, what are the keys to trimming a spinnaker?
Planing sprit boats rely a lot on apparent wind. On a displacement boat, the wind is basically pushing you downwind, where on a boat with an asymmetric spinnaker, you actually have flow over the spinnaker, and the hotter or higher you sail, the more wind you create and the more loaded the boat gets. That speed generates apparent wind, which you can then use to sail a lower angle.

Higher is usually faster in a straight line, but the angle that generates the best velocity made good toward the leeward mark can be tougher to find. What are some of the cues you use to determine the correct angle for a particular wind condition?
We rely a lot on angle of heel, and how much weight we have on the rail. Right before we go downwind, I get a feel for the wind speed. I’m thinking, “How much weight do we need on the rail going downwind?” It’s all about nailing that angle right away after the windward mark. The most challenging thing in sport boats is the transition from displacement to planing. If you’re able to get planing before the other guys, you’re instantly going 15- to 20-percent faster.

In those marginal conditions, where you want to be planing in the gusts but soaking low in the lulls, what is the trimmer’s role?
I’ll make a couple of calls at the windward mark. In the lighter conditions, it’ll be either jib up or jib down. As it gets windier, we talk a lot about how much weight to move fore and aft, because as the boat loads up, the bow wants to dig in, so you’ve got to get the weight back. If the breeze is right around the crossover wind strength, it’ll be weight on the rail, hiking, rather than weight back. We call that the lazy plane mode. In addition to the weight and the angle, I’ll also call how much backstay to ease off, which has a pretty dramatic effect on the power downwind.

If you’re in planing mode and the wind lightens, how does the communication work to transition to soak mode?
A call from the rail will come that it’s going to get substantially lighter. A lot of times I’ll look over my shoulder to see what’s going on. And then if we feel like we’re trying to push the plane and it’s not working anymore, then we’ll call for a mode change. Any bodies in the back of the boat will come forward, and the boat will come down however many degrees.

During this time, how is your spinnaker trim changing?
When you’re planing, the spinnaker will be trimmed a little bit tighter. When you go into the displacement mode, weight comes in, the boat gets in a flatter mode, and the spinnaker requires a lot more ease, so that it projects out in front of the boat.

What are the sorts of things that you can do to help keep the boat on the plane, such as when you’re sailing through a brief lull, or simply milking the last bit of a puff?
I try to generate as much power as I can. If you have the spinnaker trimmed in and there’s no curl in the front of the spinnaker, then the wind over the spinnaker is stalling. And what you’re looking to do is maintain flow on it all the time. I try to sail with two to three inches of curl all the time.

Are there any cues that you’re losing flow?
It’s primarily a combination of the curl and the pressure that I feel on the sheet. When it’s lighter, and you’re going through waves and the boat starts bouncing, people have a tendency to pull the spinnaker in tighter, which is good to a point because you’re keeping the thing loaded, but it can also be bad, because you’re over-trimming it and losing flow. So when you get in the chop and the spinnaker starts to kind of pump a little bit, it’s a delicate balance between keeping the thing loaded, and keeping the thing eased enough so that you have flow.

One thing trimmers often talk about is matching the leech profiles of the main and the spinnaker. You don’t have the necessary perspective to see the profile from the boat. So how do you go about doing that?
For the most part, the spinnaker is what it is in terms of the leech profile. You can have a little bit of effect on it with the backstay; letting it forward will close off the leech on the kite, and pulling it back will open it up. You’re primarily talking about the main at that point, and sailing with a lot of vang off.

If we’re going to sail a little bit higher, we’re going to need a little more twist. So I’ll call for a little bit more backstay, and then the main trimmer will automatically go for a little more vang off. If we need to sail lower, the backstay will come off a little bit to tighten up the leech of the spinnaker, and then he’ll pull on the vang just a little bit to get a little more power.

I kind of gauge the backstay by how much slop there is in the headstay. If you have way too much backstay on when you go downwind, then the main will be inverted. In the really big wind, the backstay will come off a couple inches when we go around the windward mark, and once we get set and going then we’ll fine-tune everything.

Tell me a little bit about spinnaker sheet movement on the Melges 32. Some people seem to move the sheet quite a bit; some people seem a lot happier to just lock it in and let the boat move around.
It depends on how good your driver is, ultimately. Once you kind of get the sheet about where it needs to be, a good driver can steer to the luff of the spinnaker and it’s really quick. In terms of sheet movement, on the 32, the most sheet I ever go through is probably four feet. On the Argo, Jason’s a really good driver. So therefore, we need to be moving the sheet a lot less. With a less experienced driver, the bow is going to be moving around a lot more, so whoever’s trimming is going to need to play the sheet accordingly; keep the spinnaker trimmed properly with just a teeny bit of curl at times in the luff. The sheet moves a lot more in lighter air, because your bow is kind of moving a little bit more to the changes in velocity.

In light air, describe how the communication works between the trimmer and the helmsman.
When we’re going in a straight line, it’s a lot of: “Pressure’s good here, no lower than this; still good pressure; no lower than this … pressure’s increasing, you can sail a tick lower; good angle here, no lower.” If we get a puff, and the boat loads up: “Tons of pressure, no higher, you can take it lower … good angle here.” It’s constant communication, we’re probably talking every 10 seconds, or I am.

Is that the most effective relationship, where you’re constantly setting a lower boundary for the helmsman, and he’s constantly trying to squeeze down?
Absolutely. In sport boats, or any high-performance boat, it’s always going to feel better sailing higher, because you’re going to go faster, but it’s not necessarily your best VMG.

How do you set that lower limit?
I do it based on the load on the sheet, and the angle of heel of the boat. However, setting a boatspeed target is good for the driver so he knows when he’s approaching the point where he may get too low and the boatspeed will fall off the cliff.

In the big breeze, how does the communication loop change?
In the really windy stuff, we’ve got somebody calling the breeze the entire time, which is super important, because once you’re up and planing, you’re trying to keep your apparent wind going. So when I hear the call from the rail: “There’s a puff coming in 3 … 2 … 1” then we’re trying to time sailing a little bit lower as the puff hits. The key to that is the timing of the person calling the puff. You don’t want the boat to heel too much, but you want it to load a little bit, and then accelerate as you head down.

Do you generally ease the sheet a little when the velocity increases?
If the wind direction remains steady, you’re going to have to ease the spinnaker, because the apparent wind is moving a little bit farther back. Once the boat starts to accelerate, then you’re going to have to trim back in.

You mentioned the ‘jib up, jib down’ thing. What goes into that decision?
The jib is like a staysail in a bigger boat. It just generates a little bit more horsepower. The crossover is approximately eight knots of breeze. If the breeze is below that, the jib blocks the wind into the spinnaker and disrupts the flow between the spinnaker and the main.

When it’s up, how do you know when you’ve trimmed the jib properly?
You need to kind of keep it as eased as you can on the sheet. You need to keep it parallel to the wind that’s flowing through the slot. So if you over-trim it’s going to affect the spinnaker quite a bit, and it’s better to have it a little under-trimmed than over-trimmed.

Take us through a good set on the Melges 32.
It’s usually either our tactician or helmsman who makes the call for the hoist. More often it’s the helmsman, because in the really windy stuff he has have the bow down far enough that the chute doesn’t blow back into the rig or inflate as it’s going up. After we come around the offset mark and put the bow downwind; the helmsman will call the hoist. The mast guy starts pulling on the halyard, I’m watching the head kind of go up behind the main, and we’ve got a couple of big marks on the halyard that tell me when we’re getting close to full hoist. I try to time it so I’m going in on the sheet just as the head of the sail is getting to the top of the rig. Once that happens, I’m calling for the bow to go up so that we can accelerate and go. And during that whole circus of events, all the weight is going in the right spot, too. You don’t want to head up to your angle until you have the sheet pulled on and, if it’s really windy, you have the weight in the right spot.

Which brings us to the last question: wiping out. It’s going to happen to everyone in a boat like the Melges 32. Let’s look at preventing it first.
First of all, being on the edge of control is when you’re going the fastest. When it’s windy, if you’re pushing hard, you’re on the hairy edge a lot. In those conditions, the vang will be most or all the way off, so that the main’s really twisted up high. Some backstay on will flatten out the front of the spinnaker and twist it off in the back to help depower a little bit, and you’ll be easing the sheet. The most common time for a wipeout is when you hit the back of a wave, the boat slows down, and your apparent wind goes back. Watching the waves and anticipating when the bow isn’t going to come up and get over the wave is key. If you see that you’re going to plug into the wave, you can kind of preempt it by easing a little bit earlier, to compensate for the apparent wind moving aft. If you hit the back of the wave, and the chute doesn’t get eased, then you’re going to go over. Downwind, in breeze, I’m watching the waves the whole time.

If you do wipeout, how do you get it back up?
It depends. First, the mainsheet should be out all the way and the vang off all the way. Those have usually already happened, but just in case, make sure they’re both loose. Get everybody up on the windward side hiking, trim the jib normally, so that you have flow going over the jib, and with enough weight on the rail, the boat should come back down.

Once the boat goes flat, and you feel like your angle is far enough away from the wind, you can trim the spinnaker back on. The angle from where you trim out of a wipeout is similar to where you would be for a set.

If that doesn’t work?
Then you’ve got to drop the chute 30 percent of the way, with people still on the rail. Once the boat starts righting itself, the mast guy and the pit guy need to start going on the halyards so the chute doesn’t end up in the water.

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leeward takedowns

One of the most critical maneuvers in a big-boat race is the spinnaker takedown at the leeward mark, and as every marine photographer knows, there is more than one way to “douse the chute.” I’d like to discuss the pros and cons of some popular techniques for takedowns on the leeward side.

Releasing the Guy
The most popular and traditional spinnaker takedown method involves either “running” the guy or “blowing” the guy shackle. This technique typically requires that the take of the spinnaker be released when the boat is a short distance from the leeward mark. The halyard is then eased and the sail is gathered in under the boom and pulled back into the companionway.

Read the full 1985 article here.

Find more articles from the SW archives here.

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