catamaran spinnakers

[R&B]

I am fairly new to cat cruising and love it.....I have minimal experiece flying a spinnaker and that was on a mono.....our boat is a privilege 12m and we have a spinnaker onboard but not sure on the proper set up......I have been trying to find reading material on the subject but not yet found anything useful in regards to cats....could anyone enlighten us...Thanks in advance.......

[sv_makai]

We used an asymetrical w/sock we bought from CDI. Depending on the width of your cat there are several options.

1) set it up with a pole like a mono and fly it, ok but usually takes 2 people and can be more work to deploy and retrieve.
2) No pole and fly with a fixed tack. Less work with out the pole but the sail is fixed and can be more difficult to trim or adajust with large changes in the wind.
3) and this is the method we use.
a) No pole
b) made a double block and tackle with a point in the center to attach the sail tack.
c) mount the block and tack on either bow and attach the sail.

The block and tackle allows you to move the sail tack from side to side to allow for easy positioning of the sail. We can sail from dead down wind up to a beam reach just by pulling or releasing the line on one side of the B&T and then drawing the other up to set the sail. this is done uder sail and is a great way for one to trim.

It is also very easy to retrieve. Drop the sock and it is down on the deck. Sometimes I will relaease the blocks and bag it all without detaching the sails.

It may be difficult to picture with my description, if so let me know and i can provide a quick drawing.

[Ram]

Hi Bill
Go ahead and give us a drawing, I think that would help
Ram

[marc]

Do you already have a spinnaker? If so, is it symetrical or A-symetrical?Each require different rigging. The symetrical is much easier to rig, with no pole required, but is effective in a smaller range of wind angles.
Marc

[sv_makai]

Depending on the width of the cat and how you rig you generally don't need a pole. The approach we use on makai allows us to swing the sail around the bow so that we can sail dead down wind or as high as a beam reach.

i will provide a drawing shortly on the rigging we use.

[R&B]

The spinnaker we have is symetrical....we dont have a pole and the beam is 21.6 ft

[marc]

Simple. A sheet and a guy in each corner. The sheets are led aft thru turning bocks then to the winches. The guys are led thru blocks on each bow and then aft to the cockpit. When you are on a port tack, you cleat the port guy and let the port sheet loose. Then you let the stb'd guy loose and adjust the stb'd sheet. When jibing, reverse the procedure. Much simpler than it sounds. I do it when singlehanding. To snuff the chute I let go the tack guy then pull down the sleeve. A symetrical spinnaker on a catamaran behaves very well, and the autopilot handles the helm quite easily.
Marc

[R&B]

Marc Thanks I thought that would be the way.....Thanks

[ernoquic]

We are preparing our Lagoon 440 for a circumnavigation, and just ordered a new Parasailor 140m2.

Must be a easily handling sail.

[Octopus]

Originally Posted by ernoquic

We are preparing our Lagoon 440 for a circumnavigation, and just ordered a new Parasailor 140m2.

Must be a easily handling sail.

I seem to remember reading a number of reports that said chafe was a major problem with Parasails, but perhaps they weren't rigged right.

[saaltydog]

We have recently purchased a Lagoon420, and would like to find a used spinnaker. Does anyone have any suggestions about where to find one?

[malbert73]

Go to bacon sails in Annapolis. Huge used sail inventory. Can order off website as well. Just a happy customer-

[Bill Brealey]

Originally Posted by sv_makai

We used an asymetrical w/sock we bought from CDI. Depending on the width of your cat there are several options.

1) set it up with a pole like a mono and fly it, ok but usually takes 2 people and can be more work to deploy and retrieve.
2) No pole and fly with a fixed tack. Less work with out the pole but the sail is fixed and can be more difficult to trim or adajust with large changes in the wind.
3) and this is the method we use.
a) No pole
b) made a double block and tackle with a point in the center to attach the sail tack.
c) mount the block and tack on either bow and attach the sail.

The block and tackle allows you to move the sail tack from side to side to allow for easy positioning of the sail. We can sail from dead down wind up to a beam reach just by pulling or releasing the line on one side of the B&T and then drawing the other up to set the sail. this is done uder sail and is a great way for one to trim.

It is also very easy to retrieve. Drop the sock and it is down on the deck. Sometimes I will relaease the blocks and bag it all without detaching the sails.

It may be difficult to picture with my description, if so let me know and i can provide a quick drawing.

Hi,
I have just purchased a Fountaine Pajot Belize 43, it has a spinnaker and a huge sock, I don't know how to set these up on the boat and would appreciate you sending me a copy of your rig set up.

Regards,

Bill Brealey

[Factor]

Peak to Halyard
Tack to bridle tack line lead back through block on each bow to cockpit
Sheet on clew,

Thats all there is to it

[Captain Bill]

We have an asym on our Endeavourcat. We have two tack lines that we run through block and just back to our bow cleats. We adjust the respective lengths of the two tack line to position the tack. We run the sheet through a turning block then up to our winch on the lee side. We have a snatch block that we use to use to change the effective sheeting point along the rail as need for good trim. Since we only use it in fairly light winds we don't really worry about having to go forward to adjust the tack. Even with this very basic set up I can use it from DDW to about 15 degress forward of the beam. It's very effective. I once was using it in very light winds about 15 degrees forward of the beam. The apparent wind was 7.5 gusting 9.5 and the boat was doing 6.5 and going to 7.5 on the gusts. Considering the tru wind was even less than that, I was pretty happy. I have bought the blocks to rig a more user friendly tack system, but have not put it together yet.