Hi Joe, According to my limited knowlege and experience, it's better to use a dedicated spinny halyard outside the forestay. That way, the asymm can get out in front of the boat and rotate in front of the bow, similar to a spinnaker. The performance of the spinny really requires that you get it out in forward of the bow. The further forward of the mainsail the better it is for sailing deep angles.
AFter you hoist the spinny halyard, you launch the spinny by hauling the sock up. The control line for my North Sails sock is a continuous loop which is integrated right into the sock . You'll need a cleat somewhere on the mast to fasten the sock uphaul. The tack line and spinny sheets are preattached and sucked up inside the sock with the spinny; they stick out the bottom of the sock. The real question, in my mind, is do you "inside" or "outside" gybes? In an outside gybe, the clew of the spinny flies out in front of the forstay, and is pulled around the "outside". The lazy sheet travels from the clew of the spinny, foward of the forestay (around the outside) and then aft to the cockpit. Some folks argue that it's easier to do outside gybes when the wind is strong. I'm not convinced, for reasons I'll explain below. I prefer to do "inside gybes". In this case the clew of the spinny is gybed by pulling it infront of the spinny, but aft of the forestay. The lazy sheet is lead between the tack line and the forestay. It takes a little better timing to gybe this way, but it has some real advantages. We have learned to do insede gybes on our Potter 19 and Catalina 27 which don't have sprit poles, as well on sprit boats like the J80 and J105. It's really not hard once you get the hang of it. The disadvantage of doing outside gybes is that the lazy sheet is in front of the forestay and can fall down underneath the bow of the boat. It can get stuck there. You have to keep an eye on it all the time. If you don't notice it, you can even wrap it around the prop (Been there, done that... the first time I ever flew the A-spinny on the C27.... Make sure you "lock" your prop in forward so it's not freewheeling when you're doing spinnaker gybes). (Here are pictures from our second day using the asymm. We were doing outside gybes. You can see my friend Jerry sitting on the foredeck, keeping a close eye on the lazysheet. It keep falling down, even though we had a gadget to keep it from falling. http://blumhorst.com/catalina27/asymmetric20030119.htm ) Rigging for the inside gybe virtually eliminated the problem of dropping a lazy sheet under the boat. And don' tthink that you need a long pole sprit like you see on newer sport boats to inside gybes.. Here's a link to how to do it. http://na1.northsails.com/Cruising_Sails/SolutionsInsideGybesFeb2005.htm Finally, I think you probably could put a spinny crane on with out dropping the mast, but I havent given it much thought. I didn't do it that way. You'd have to work out all the safety issures around removing the stays and halyard pins. It would be easier and safer to do it from a crane, rather than hauling yourself up the mast in a bosun's chair, that's for sure! One last thing: I don't like the design of the spinny crane sold by Catalina Direct. The block can get stuck on the wrong side of the bail when we're all done sailing and I'm trying to tidy up at the mast. If I could do it over again, I would weld something to keep the block centered on the bail before installing the crane. ________________________________ From: Joe McCary <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, May 2, 2009 9:18:22 PM Subject: Spinnaker Crane Question WAS RE: [IC27A] Re: Boom Height Judith, thanks for posting the images. I have an unrelated question. I notice in your top of the mast photo there is a spinnaker crane. I have recently acquired a used Asym-spinnaker. From what I have read this can be flown either outside the forestay or inside. If it is inside you can use the Jib Halyard or a second forward halyard, if flown outside you would need a crane. This poses 2 questions for me. First which is "better" or which is easier to fly? And the second question is IF outside the forestay is the answer and I would need a crane, can the crane be installed with the mast in the up position or will it require lowering the mast? I will also need to install the controls for a spinnaker sock (Up haul and Down haul) and what size line is needed for that? Joe McCary Aeolus II, West River, MD joe at photoresponse dot com From:ic...@yahoogroups. com [mailto:IC27A@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Judith Blumhorst, DC Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 7:24 PM To: ic...@yahoogroups. com Subject: Re: [IC27A] Re: Boom Height [2 Attachments] [Attachment(s) from Judith Blumhorst, DC included below] Hi Brandon, ... See the attached pictures of my tall rig mast, showing the top and bottom black bands old-mast-&-new_boom2.JPG
