Your Opinion of Spinnakers

[heysteveh]

We purchased our '93 Mac 26S (our first boat) this spring and are considering getting a Spinnaker. Our current sail inventory includes main, jib, 150 genoa, & storm sails which we have yet to try. My wife and I are into day sailing and occasional weekend cruising on the Great Lakes with occasional trips up to the North Channel. My understanding of Spinnakers is that they improve downwind performance. My wife doesn't care so much about that as she does how cool they look with all the colors .

Soooo... what are your general thoughts on spinnakers? Are they fun? Easy or hard to rig and fly? Do those of you that have them use them often or are they a pain? Do you need extra winches? Are they a good "bang for the buck" for sailing enjoyment? I think we would want a cruising spinnaker rather than a racing one.

Thanks, Steve

[LOUIS B HOLUB]

Spinnakers look nice...but considering the work, costs, storage, and lack of need, our boat hasnt considered getting one. Interestingly, we sail in a crowded boating area, and I havent seen a spinnaker displayed yet.

edit add: Prior to our Mac-X, we owned a 92 Mac 26-S. Its a fine boat, and handled well with standard sails, or genoa.

[SURV69]

Just the fact that a running spinnaker is more than reason enough.

The fact that so few boats run a spinnaker, is exactly why I want to.

[nedmiller]

For those of you who do run a spinnaker on an X, how long is your spinniker pole and how high on the deck do you mount the ring that it snaps to?
Ned

[Catigale]

No pole, attaches directly to forestay plate and I just use genny sheets usually

[Scott]

Interestingly, we sail in a crowded boating area, and I havent seen a spinnaker displayed yet.

We are the only boat that flies one at our lake. I saw another one about 6 years ago. We have a bunch of pretty serious sailors too. Suprising.

I dont consider it to be too mmuch work considering the benefits. We sail on a fairly small lake and consequently cant do long runs yet we fly it near every time we go out. Theres just no feeling like being pulled along that fast by someting as thin as tissue.

Just a sidebar note on edit, There is huge discussions on spinnakers, a-sym and sym in the archives. How to use, rig, repair, buy, sell, sew, conjur and steal. Do a search and youll come up with more than we could jam into a new thread.

[eric3a]

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[beene]

It was the first thing that went up when I hit the water with the new boat!

Couldn’t wait.

[eric3a]

..

[Catigale]

YEah - Beene has his set up much better than mine - look how tight the luff is...I posted a question about this some time ago, maybe you can learn me this Beene??

[eric3a]

,,

[parrothead]

Yes, Beene -- please do share some info on your rig.

In the photos your spinnaker is clearly flying ahead of the headstay, but the way the lazy sheet is led "inside" [between the headstay and the mast], I don't see how the spinnaker could be jibed. The sheets for the fulred jib would also interfere with the sort of "inside" jibe that the spinaker sheet placement would require.

We added a spinnaker to our for our 2nd season, and I flew it from the stock jib halyard and rigged it for "inside" jibing - which seemed to be the only option anyway, given the length of the supplied sheets. There is no way to fully tighten the spinnaker luff with this configuration. I've been contemplating adding another block to the mast a short distance above the headstay for a dedicated spinnaker halyard, and getting longer sheets to permit an "outside" rig where the spinnnaker would pass in front of the headstay when being jibed.

[eric3a]

,,

[beene]

Good old Bill set me up sweet for sailing, excellent knowledge of the boat, what works and what doesn't.

I am sure he would not mind me telling you this one little tidbit from his book of add-ons. He set me up with a snapshackle attached to the same point the furled Genoa is.

I have an extension I plan on trying out next season that might fly the kite a bit higher. I will post how that goes when I do it.

You are all very keen to notice that my config does NOT permit a jibe. These pics were taken my first time out on MV. I was not quite sure how I wanted to rig the kite. I just thought about how I had seen kites on the sharks that race on my bay. They are clear out in front of everything. My other sailboat uses a spinnaker pole, again a different config from the Mac. When I was out there that day, I had decided I was not going to “come about” at all, just keep it abeam till the wind died and then motor home. Quite often then wind dies late evening and I end up motoring back, another reason I bought the Mac instead of a pure sailboat.

Hope this helps

Geoff