Quote:
Originally Posted by Keegan
Is a tensioned topping lift, without the main, enough to support the mast from behind while flying a spinnaker?
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Hi Keegan - I think the complete answer is boat dependent. But I don't claim to know the full answer for my own boat. I do like to fly the chute alone and in light air it's very effective.
Prudency dictates that
some aft tension be provided if the
mainsail and
sheets aren't providing anything - once apparent
wind (coupled with the seastate) is high enough that a reasonably knowledgable
skipper gets concerned. But the mast is not taking all the force of the chute - it's also distributed to the hulls via the guys/sheets. (I won't claim to know in what proportion it's distributed.)
I replaced my topping lift with stronger Sta-SetX in part for this concern. I've adopted the conservative practice of making sure the main
sheets are tensioned pretty tight regardless of how much main I have up anytime I'm deep downwind with the chute and apparent
wind gusts to 10+. Running a double reef main works well, too.
In flat
water my boat makes a bit more than 1/2 the true wind speed DDW with just the chute. So apparent wind is <10 when true wind is 20 and I'm making 10+ knots. This does not feel rig-threatening, and in fact, is very pleasant. All bets are off when you're surfing/overtaking waves and boat speed and thus, apparent wind, can vary a lot. In those cases the risk of collapsing the chute would motivate me to not use it in addition to the risk of straining the rig too much if the boat suddenly decelerated in the back of a wave.
Another option if not carrying any main is to run the main
halyard back to some point on the boom.
But my thoughts keep coming back to these facts: My spi
halyard is not as strong as my topping lift and the spi is not as strong as either one. Despite my prudent practices to provide
some aft support for the rig, I bet something else will give first.
Dave