Downhaul line on Assymetric Spinnaker

[Michael Baker]

Hi,

My World has an assymetric spinnaker from North sails. However, I’m struggling to understand the best way to rig the downhaul line….let me explain.

The sail has a ‘loop patch’ on both sides of the sail at the lower part of the sail. It also has two ‘hole patches’, one slightly lower than the other further up the sail. Mysteriously, the previous owner marked one of these hole patches with a letter ‘S’.

Please if someone has any suggestions as to how best to loop and thread the downhaul, I’m all ears….. Also, intrigued to know what the ‘s’ could mean ……

Thanks

Mike

[john1162]

Hi Michael,

My set up had only one retrieval point in the middle of the sail. when you pulled it down it would not all come into the boat so for the last bit you had to pull the sail by hand. to overcome this some sails had two retrieval points one to attach the downhaul at one third of the way from the top and a loop for the retrieval line to feed through two thirds from the top.  This could account for your three points.  If you use two points for the retrieval then you may find the sail bunches up and is difficult to get into the chute especially when wet.  I found it difficult to recover when the retrieval line was on the leeward side as it bunched the sail up so I would gybe to get the line on the windward side before recovering.

When set correctly it powered the old boat along very well and I achieved 13+ knots for nearly a mile on one memorable occasion.  Unfortunately the angle through which the boat pointed for optimum performance was very small and I reverted to a conventional spinnaker.

If it is the middle hole that is marked with an S this could indicate S for single point retrieval.

[Author]

Posts