[Hud3]

My boat is a 38' full-keeled cutter, and it's cruising weight is about 24,000 lbs. The genoa is a 110%, high cut sail--great for sailing in the tradewinds, but a bit small for less than 10 kts of wind. The boat sails very well in most conditions, but I wasn't happy with it's light air performance, especially off the wind.

So I bought an asymmetric spinnaker. I rigged it up so I can handle it all by myself. Well, just myself and the autopilot! Any of the good sailmakers can size the sail to your boat, and can recommend what weight nylon fabric to use. Mine is 1,208 sq. ft. in area, and made of 1.5 oz. fabric. My main, staysail and genoa combined are 885 sq. ft.

I ordered an ATN spinnaker sock with the sail (see photo below). It's a sleeve that encloses the entire spinnaker, top to bottom (see photo below). You roll up the sleeve, with the sail inside, and stuff it in a sailbag for storage. To rig it, you unroll the sleeve on deck, and attach the head to your spinnaker halyard, the tack to an ATN Tacker (more on that later), and the clew to the two spinnaker sheets. See the diagram below.

The ATN Tacker is a plastic U-shaped thingy that fits over your furled genoa. The tack of the sail is attached to it, and a tack line is also attached to it and run through stanchion blocks back to the cockpit. The sheets (I use 3/8" NER Stayset) are run outside the shrouds to snatch blocks at the cockpit, and then to winches. I installed two secondary winches for them, but you could use the primaries. Ideally, the tack line will have it's own winch, too.

To deploy the sail, once rigged up, just haul it up with the halyard, make sure the active sheet ant the tack line are secured, and haul on the sleeve's control line. It's continuous, so pulling one side raises the sock and the other lowers the sock. As the sock goes up, the sail emerges and fills with wind. Adjust the sheet, and you're all set. The tack line can be adjusted in or out. Letting it out allows the ATN Tacker to rise, which gives the sail a fuller shape and allows it to rotate forward--good for winds behind the beam. Hauling in on the tack line flattens the luff and allows you to sail closer to the wind. The Tacker keeps the tack of the sail centered as it slides up the furled genoa, which is a good thing.

To snuff it, you "blow the tack" by pulling the pin on the snap shackle that holds the tack of the sail. The sail billows out to leeward, and you pull down smartly on the sock's control line, dousing the sail. Then just lay it down of the deck by ease out the halyard. The only thing that takes any muscle is hauling the sail to and from the foredeck, and hauling it up the mast on the halyard. If you can get away with 3/4 oz fabric, that would be less of an issue. The snuffer is easy.

I can sail it between about 70 and 135 degrees apparent wind, and in winds from 5-6 kts up to maybe 20 kts, true windspeed. First time out, I had some experienced sailors with me as we figured out how to handle the sail. But after a little bit of practice, I found it pretty easy to rig, deploy, sail and snuff it all by myself. One thing I do for safety and control, is to keep my mainsail up, so I can turn downwind and blanket the spinnaker when I set it and snuff it.

Hope this helps.