Asym Spinnaker

I am trying to find anyone out there with experience flying an asymmetrical spinnaker. I am familiar with a symmetrical but not the correct way to rig an asym. Went sailing with a friend on his new "family friendly" boat that was equipped with a spinnaker but not all of the needed running rigging. One item that I found to be different was that it had a short line attached to the clew but no place on the bow to connect. We were able to fly it and it worked great, however it felt like we were just guessing as to the correct way to rig it. Any ideas? Patrick s/v L'Esprit Libre Cal 40

The one's I've seen (not many) mostly just attached to a shackle at the base of the headstay. But the best system is on a friend's mid-80's Hunter; he has an old spinnaker pole with a ring on deck and a bail on the bow roller. To fly the spinnaker, just slide the pole out through the bail and lock it into the ring (same fitting as a spinnaker car but fixed at deck level.) The spinnaker then flies from the end of the pole as a bowsprit. That not only makes the spinnaker much more effective and even easier to tack, but it's also cheap and easy to rig - the pole was a broken one with a sleeve welded over the break (and positioned so the sleeve is under the bail at the point of max stress) and the rest is pretty minimal. The spinnaker and sheets were the only significant costs required. On Apr 12, 2009, at 10:37 AM, wheee_dogggie wrote: > I am trying to find anyone out there with experience flying an > asymmetrical spinnaker. I am familiar with a symmetrical but not > the correct way to rig an asym. Went sailing with a friend on his > new "family friendly" boat that was equipped with a spinnaker but > not all of the needed running rigging. One item that I found to be > different was that it had a short line attached to the clew but no > place on the bow to connect. > > We were able to fly it and it worked great, however it felt like we > were just guessing as to the correct way to rig it. > > Any ideas? > > Patrick > s/v L'Esprit Libre > Cal 40 > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > -- Matt Beland ma… [at] rearviewmirror.org