Spinnakers

I'm looking for general thoughts on spinnakers for PHRF racing for our 2-27. Our spinnaker exploded last week when the wind from what I'll call the big black cloud that moved down the lake hit us about a minute from rounding the leeward mark. Wind increased form around 5 kts apparent to at least 25 kts apparent. The silver lining is that while the other boats in our division were rounding up and had their kites streaming from their masts (in one piece) we were able to haul it in, round the mark and finish with line honors and finally beat a boat I've been trying to beat for 2 years. It ripped along seams, mostly just the tape on one side and the first upper panel and then the tape the rest of the way down on the other. I think it started at the head, just below the reinforcing, where it did tear across the fabric. I have a few quotes for replacements, and I need to make some follow up calls to the lofts, but I'm first looking for unbiased opinions. The old one was a tri radial with three horizontal panels across the center. One quote is for a "full radial", no horizontal panels. One is calling it a tri radial, I'm not sure of the panel configuration. I've seen a couple websites show their full radials with basically square panels in the center where I currently have (had) the horizontal rectangular panels. Anyone have any thoughts about how this should be cut. It will be the only one we carry and I don't want to be too limited with our angles downwind. I've also read that it's not a great idea to have multi colored spinnakers due to uneven shrinkage, stretch and even weights of the fabric form different rolls. Anyone have any experience with this? It seems like the cloth will be Challenge, Contender or Bainbridge. Is one better or are they basically the same? I guess the real question is, for someone who is doing week night PHRF racing, do the answers to the questions I've asked make any difference or do these things just come to play in the top end of the one design type racing? Anyone have any experience with Sobstad spinnakers? Thanks for any advice. Bob

--- In Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com, "Bob Ellison" <bob_sharon@...> wrote: > > I'm looking for general thoughts on spinnakers for PHRF racing for our 2-27. > Our spinnaker exploded last week when the wind from what I'll call the big black cloud that moved down the lake hit us about a minute from rounding the leeward mark. Wind increased form around 5 kts apparent to at least 25 kts apparent. The silver lining is that while the other boats in our division were rounding up and had their kites streaming from their masts (in one piece) we were able to haul it in, round the mark and finish with line honors and finally beat a boat I've been trying to beat for 2 years. > It ripped along seams, mostly just the tape on one side and the first upper panel and then the tape the rest of the way down on the other. I think it started at the head, just below the reinforcing, where it did tear across the fabric." If it blew out fast enough, the old spinnaker might be salvageable. We blew a 3/4 in a squall in Transpac and the kids spent a day sewing the tapes back on. We used it again and, when I got it home, the loft just went over the sewing with machines. It hadn't stretched at all. At least look into using it as a spare unless it was damaged bringing it in. And it was a Sobstad but that was years ago. My current new sails are Ullman. Mike Kennedy Conquest Cal 40 # 96

Congratulations on the line honors, if your experience is the same as mine you love that 5kt wind speed, yesterday we pulled a one and a two against boats that owed us 30 seconds to over 50 seconds per mile in light wind conditions today it was blowing about 15 - 20 so we are not talking about those finishes. Anyway, I fly a tru radial or tri radial with no horizontal panels. My first sail was from North and lasted many years, I replaced it with an Air Force chute based on the Sobstad design. The major difference seems to be price. we race primarily triangular courses with some real tight spinnaker reaches, the 2-27 beats well with a spinnaker up. Yesterday we had one boat protest us and insisted that we do a 360 I thought the protest was bogus but since he was satisfied with a 360 instead of a 720 we did our turn but kept the chute up, it cost us about a boat length! John Boyce CAL 2-27 Gotcha Again _____ From: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com [mailto:Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bob Ellison Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 1:36 PM To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Subject: [Cal_Boats] Spinnakers I'm looking for general thoughts on spinnakers for PHRF racing for our 2-27. Our spinnaker exploded last week when the wind from what I'll call the big black cloud that moved down the lake hit us about a minute from rounding the leeward mark. Wind increased form around 5 kts apparent to at least 25 kts apparent. The silver lining is that while the other boats in our division were rounding up and had their kites streaming from their masts (in one piece) we were able to haul it in, round the mark and finish with line honors and finally beat a boat I've been trying to beat for 2 years. It ripped along seams, mostly just the tape on one side and the first upper panel and then the tape the rest of the way down on the other. I think it started at the head, just below the reinforcing, where it did tear across the fabric. I have a few quotes for replacements, and I need to make some follow up calls to the lofts, but I'm first looking for unbiased opinions. The old one was a tri radial with three horizontal panels across the center. One quote is for a "full radial", no horizontal panels. One is calling it a tri radial, I'm not sure of the panel configuration. I've seen a couple websites show their full radials with basically square panels in the center where I currently have (had) the horizontal rectangular panels. Anyone have any thoughts about how this should be cut. It will be the only one we carry and I don't want to be too limited with our angles downwind. I've also read that it's not a great idea to have multi colored spinnakers due to uneven shrinkage, stretch and even weights of the fabric form different rolls. Anyone have any experience with this? It seems like the cloth will be Challenge, Contender or Bainbridge. Is one better or are they basically the same? I guess the real question is, for someone who is doing week night PHRF racing, do the answers to the questions I've asked make any difference or do these things just come to play in the top end of the one design type racing? Anyone have any experience with Sobstad spinnakers? Thanks for any advice. Bob

As some of you know, I have been learning to fly a spinnaker by crewing on a boat that is expert on the subject. I raced with them all winter including once a week practices and twice a month races. We one one series but ended up missing most races in the other series for various reasons. I did note that in some races we were the only boat to use a spinnaker because of the strong winds and in others we were the last to take ours down as we rounded the mark. I would judge Tim's training and execution excellent. I have tried to document what I learned and am looking for people to critique it. http://l-36.com/spinnaker_intro.php It consists of 8 web pages which include 7 short YouTube videos. The videos are not pro quality but it isn't easy to get videos while you are racing or even practicing when you need to fill a crew position at the same time. Allen