Where is the spinnaker installed? What is a spinnaker on a yacht?

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

The Vybirayka game is popular on the Odnoklassniki social network. It contains a question with multiple answers: “Where is the spinnaker installed: a yacht, an ice hole?” The question level of 345 testifies to the belief of the authors of the game that rarely anyone knows the correct answer to it. Let's try to understand the essence of this term and related concepts.

Basic concepts

Before we find out what a spinnaker is, where it is installed and why it is needed, let's turn to the definitions. From the free encyclopedia "Wikipedia" we find out that a spinnaker is an additional sail for a yacht or other swimming facility, which is made of light and durable fabric, has a convex shape and is used according to the principle of a parachute.

Many yachts are equipped with spinnakers, especially racing cruising ones. Their use in sailing regattas enhances the competition and makes it spectacular as it is a beautiful, large and eye-catching sail. It is not without reason that advertising materials are usually placed on it.

Spinnaker whereinstall?

This light sail gives good effect on full courses from jibe to gulfwind. When leaving the moorings, usually only the main sails are used - the mainsail and the staysail. The spinnaker, on the other hand, is set in most cases on the move of the yacht to achieve maximum speed when moving from sharp to a full course or already when following a full course. The area of this sail is comparable to or exceeds the measured area of the standard sails of the yacht. Therefore, and due to the harsh conditions of setting it up at full speed, setting a spinnaker is a risky business. No wonder the sailor participating in this process must be dressed in a life jacket and be tied with a safety line.

Preparing the spinnaker for setting

For a successful installation of a spinnaker, it is necessary to carefully prepare it by laying it in a special way in a pre-prepared hard bag made of waterproof fabric, an adapted bag-box or a plastic bucket. There are two main styling methods.

In the first method, it starts from the middle of the lower part of the sail so that its lower corners stick out of the package first, and its head corner on top. A sailor setting up a spinnaker must not make a mistake when disassembling corners and lay the halyard and braces correctly. A properly packed spinnaker sail sets up easily and without delay.

In the second method, the unfolded spinnaker is gradually assembled to the central seam with neat vertical folds into a long sausage, which is then placed in a bag with a snake according to the size of the package. This packageput in a bag, leaving two lower corners sticking out and one upper corner on top. It is better to tie up the package with a thin but strong thread, under which a line is laid. After lifting the spinnaker in a folded form around the head angle, the line is pulled, it breaks the thread - and the sail opens, filling with wind.

The first way to set up a spinnaker

So, where is the spinnaker installed? The first way is from the headstay. First, they take out the bag with the folded sail on the forecastle in front of the headstay and fix it on the deck. Then the halyard, brace and sheet are attached to the corresponding corners of the sail sticking out of the bag. Make sure that these fasteners do not get confused with other gear. One of the legs of the spinnaker boom is attached to the yoke on the mast by means of a “beak” binding and fired from the windward side in front of the shrouds. To the other leg of the boom, a brace or krengel of the tack angle of the sail with a brace fixed in its beak is attached. If there is a guy line and topenant, then they are also attached to the spinnaker boom. After this preparation, on the command “Put the spinnaker!” one sailor quickly selects and fastens the spinnaker halyard, the other sailor, being on the forecastle, holds the sail during lifting, preventing its premature opening and dropping into the water. At the same time, he straightens the leech. After the spinnaker halyard is fully extended, the spinnaker boom is set horizontally using a quickdraw and topenant. At the same time, the brace and sheet are pulled, helping the sail to fill with the wind.

Another way

There is a more convenient way to install a spinnaker. Where is it installed in this version? Answer fromguys. For keel yachts, the spinnaker is placed at the lee shrouds, for dinghies - in the space between the wind shrouds and the mast. At the same time, the presence of a sailor on the forecastle is required only for the installation of a spinnaker boom. Yes, and this operation can often be performed in advance. The convenience of this method lies in the fact that the mainsail covering it prevents the early opening of an additional sail.

Walking under a spinnaker

It is impossible to fully understand the question of what a spinnaker is on a yacht without understanding how to wear it. And this is quite a difficult task. It is necessary to constantly adjust the sheet and brace of this sail, now choosing, then easing them so that it is filled with wind. Following the gybe course, it is necessary to bait the sheet as much as possible and choose the brace so that the spinnaker boom is directed almost in the same line with the direction of the main boom. In this position, the spinnaker comes out from behind the mainsail and works better. A sign of a good sail is that it goes far ahead and becomes pot-bellied. In this position, the yacht is gaining good speed. A sign that it is no longer possible to choose a braces is the collapse of the windward luff of the spinnaker and the deterioration of its pot-belliedness. On the other hand, if the sheet is moved, then the leeward edge of the sail comes too close to the mainsail, the air flowing from it interferes with the operation of the mainsail, which is rinsed, which forces the boom-sheet to be picked up. As a result, the speed of the yacht is reduced.

Change tack

When the wind is light, a spinnaker on a gybe may not fill with the wind and stop. ATIn these cases, it is desirable to change the tack. If this does not make the sail work, then you should take a backstay course. The yacht's path is lengthened, but the gain is possible by increasing the speed of the yacht, since on this course the spinnaker is less obstructed by the mainsail and works even in light winds. On the backstay course, by adjusting the brace and sheet, the spinnaker boom is set to a position intermediate between the windward shroud and the stay.

Change of tack when carrying a spinnaker is carried out by the jibe method. This requires clear coordinated actions of almost the entire team - the helmsman and the sailors who control the spinnaker and the mainsail. In this case, it is possible to change the tack without jerks, without losing the fullness of the wind of the spinnaker and, therefore, without losing speed. But such a result can only be achieved through repeated training of team members under the guidance of an experienced skipper.

Change tack tack when carrying a spinnaker.

Removing the spinnaker

If necessary, change course steeper than the backstay, and this happens often during competitions, you have to remove the spinnaker. This is not an easy operation, especially in strong winds. The sail is removed directly into the cockpit, quickly easing the spinnaker halyard, while one sailor with the means of insurance must remove the pulp of the sail, preventing it from being filled with wind again. If the sailor does not keep up with the speed of the haulage, the sail will fall into the water. In this case, his impulse is possible, or he will drown. Raising the sail to the deck must be done only around one corner and quickly. Otherwise he willact as a floating anchor and the speed of the yacht will drop.

Varieties of spinnakers

In yachting practice, there are many different types of this sail, differing in shape, cut, area and other features. For the same yacht, different spinnakers are used with different wind strengths. In light winds, the most pot-bellied sail with a large area is used. In stormy weather, you can use a special storm spinnaker, the flattest and smallest in area. Also, a flatter and smaller sail is used on Gulfwind courses, since in this case an ordinary spinnaker interferes with the operation of the mainsail and slows down, catching the waves with the luff.

Similar sail

Along with the aforementioned, other additional sails are used on yachts. Similar in purpose are the gennaker and spinnaker. A gennaker is an asymmetrical sail, medium in size between a genoa and a spinnaker. By the way, the name "gennaker" comes from a combination of these two words.

Compared to a spinnaker, a gennaker has a number of advantages. Firstly, it results in less roll of the yacht with the same thrust (except for the gybe). Secondly, when carrying a gennaker, it is much easier and safer to control the yacht in critical situations and on turns. Thirdly, this sail can be used in a wider range of courses than a spinnaker.

The disadvantage is that when using a gennaker in light winds on a jibe course, the boat performs worse than under a spinnaker.

Untangle the spinnaker

The photos here and at the beginning of the article show that when carrying a spinnaker, especially during competitions, with insufficient experience of the teams, curious cases of sail tangling often occur. This situation occurs when, due to an error in the actions of the team, the spinnaker (or gennaker) overlaps in the central part during the turn, sags, sticks to the forestay and cannot inflate on its own. As a result, the sail takes on a look similar to a well-known part of women's underwear. It takes the intervention of two or three members of the team and the application of considerable effort, so that with wave-like movements, holding the sail by the lower part of the spinnaker halyard, make it unravel and open under the action of the wind.

After reading this article, we hope no one will doubt how to answer the question: “Where is the spinnaker installed: a yacht, an ice hole?” Naturally, the first option.