Sailing Spinnaker like a real chute....2002 X

[Catigale]

My kids go off to school tomorrow, and the Admiral and I had a sail date once they were in school....but today was so nice in Albany NY she pulled it forward...

We launched out of Shady Harbor (New Baltimore NY) and caught about 8 knot breeze from the South, gusting to 12 once in while.

We flew the spinnaker from the jib halyard - about 5 feet of loose halyard at the top, and ran two 3/16 Stayset sheets back on each side, letting the 'chute dance in front of Catigale...

Best speed (GPS) was 6.2 mph, I estimate we were heading into a tide of 1 mph or so based on paddle wheel and GPS differential.

Running with the wind, it was difficult to stop the chute from spilling side to side - late in the sail I tightened up the loose halyard and it seemed to spill out the bottom and be more stable. If you tacked as you ran, however, holding the boat about 35 degrees off the wind aft, it was a much easier ride.

Only event was passing the burned out carcass of one of our neighbors whose boat burned up at the dock last night....

Summary - it is a nice sail configuration in < 10 knots, if the wind isnt veering/backing a lot. Its great having no sheets to adjust with the kids in the cockpit.

...and, I managed to land the chute back on deck, and stuff it in the front hatch, without a drop of water getting on it.

Stephen

[Mark Prouty]

Congratulations on sailing the spinnaker. I failed on my first attempt last week with my spinnaker getting hopelessly tangled around the forestay. I was pushing it at 15mph + winds. Got greedy.

[Catigale]

15 knots sounds a bit heavy for the spin....It might be ok if the wind is steady...the wind was shifting through about 70 degrees of arc so that made it a lot of work.

I had to tack under the Castleton-on-Hudson bridge with a barge coming the other way which got me thinking a lot. I had forgotten which side of the bridge the big boys go under, so had to hail the barge on 13 to ask him. He was real polite ...hats off to those commercial guys putting up with us fun lovers while they move all our stuff on the water.

The height of the spin. is pretty important if you are 'flying it' (spin not tacked to front)...I think you have to get the bottom high enough so that it can spill air to stop it from wobbling.

By the way I was both rudders and full centerboard down. I alsohad a clean run where i put the motor (mercury 50 Bigfoot) up and down and saw at most 0.2 mph gain in speed at 6 mph speed with motor up. I think it was less to be honest. The gain at low speed might be higher. There is so much turbulence from the transom area on the X that the frictional loss of the motor is minimal imho. My sailing parter lost a hat on Nantucket Sound a few weeks ago, and it stuck in the transom long enough for us to go below, get a stick before we grabbed it.

Happy Sails

Stephen