New Spinnaker

Pemandia
Peter Fabricius
Tue 26 Jul 2016 17:28
I wrote about down wind sails back in the Spring, after my visit to see Peter Sanders in Lymington. Not only does Peter make really good sails (and makes them here in UK rather than sending the measurements to a sweat shop in the Far East) but he has got to know me and how I sail and has taken a great deal of trouble to make sails that are right for ME. So he made me a reaching sail on a furler which I have already described (but is temporarily out of action as the bowsprit is in hospital) and he made a symmetrical spinnaker that we have not used . . . Until today.

From first light this morning there was a suspicion of a breeze and I was delighted to see that as predicted it had gone to the W. After breakfast we could sail and ghosted along until we thought there would be enough wind to fill the spinnaker.

Hoisting it was easy. Peter uses a sniffer made by ATN rather than his own. It is hard to believe what a difference a good sniffer makes to ease of handling. This one has the setting and dowsing lines both in sleeves so they can not get twisted. Why did no one else think of that? At first it was difficult to keep filled but with 4K apparent wind we were making about 4K. As the breeze strengthened we whizzed along, recording speeds of up to 8k! By tea time the wind had backed quite a bit and increased. The spinnaker was a bit shy and I started to imagine what could go wrong, so we lowered it. Again the sniffer worked like a dream and the whole thing was back in a locker with all ropes away and pole stowed in no time at all.

Now the Genoa is set again. It is a bit overcast after a sunny day. All of us still in shorts, enjoying life in the cockpit. I can feel a G&T coming on later: I wonder if those mysterious girls from the outward trip will be at the party.

Peter

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