www.trisailing.comTRIMARAN ASYMMETRICAL SPINNAKER SET UP AND USE
SETTING UP THE ASYMMETRICAL
Let us assume that your boat has all the gear necessary for using a spinnaker. If it does not you should contact your dealer. If you are just starting to use a spinnaker choose a day with steady winds under 10 knots. We will set up the spinnaker on the port side because that is where you generally will use it. If you have been using a screacher you may want to remove it the very first time if you feel there will be any confusion. After you do this once you should find it is easy to keep the sails from having their lines get tangled and confused. I am writing this for boats with 4 winches on the cabin top though you can easily modify it for boats with coaming winches. I also assume all clutches are on the cabin top where they work best for short handed sailing but will tell you what to do if they are not.
The Sheet: (130 feet on a 31) You will have a long sheet (line) to which you have attached a snap shackle to the middle. I recommend you get a line which is red (color used by Corsair Marine). Hook the snap shackle to the inboard side of the net about 1 meter behind the front aka. Take one end outside and in front of the shroud to a block with a snap shackle at the furthest aft end of the port ama. That line is then led to the cockpit and will be the working sheet. The other end of the sheet goes outside of all other lines around the front of the forestay back to the aft end of the starboard ama and into the cockpit. This will be the lazy sheet. I tie slip knots onto the net to keep them from going into the water (propeller) they can easily pull out when they will be used
The Tack Line: (65 feet on a 31) The tack line should be green and have a snap shackle at one end. This can be spliced on though I recommend using a buntline hitch or a very tight bowline so you can easily revers the line when it starts to chafe. This is the line on the boat that chafes the most both at the clutch and at the front end where it runs near the screecher drum. If you start with a line that is a few feet longer than what you need it will let you cut the front three feet off a few times as it wears. attach the snap shackle to the inboard edge of the net right behind the front aka on the port side. It should run to the stand up block on top of the bow sprit and then come back to a block near the bow pulpit and come aft to a clutch on the deck.
The Halyard: The halyard is generally white with red on Corsairs. I hook my snap shackle on the port ama in front of the shroud. This way it will be out of the way of both screacher and jib.
Packing the Asymetrical in the bag: Attach the head which will have green and red tapes leading to it. To the top middle of the bag. There should be a velcro strap there for this reason. work your way along both tapes and attach the tack and clew to the sides of the bag. There should be velcro straps there for that purpose.
Now the boat is ready for asym use. If it is rough I leave the spinnaker below so the bag does not take on a lot of water. If it is calm you can attach it to the net now. When you attach the bag to the net place it between the Sheet and the tack line so that tack and Clew are close to the corresponding lines. Now all you have to do is attach the Halyard Sheet and the tack line and you are ready to hoist. Free up the slip knots on the sheets and put two wraps around the working winch (leeward (in this case port)).
The Hoist: I recommend that during the hoist you only have one person in the cockpit. This means the driver is on the windward or leeward net depending on wind strength. This allows the hoister to go crazy pulling the sail up. As you approach the windward mark or arbitrary point where you will hoist you should pull the tack to the forward edge of the bow net. This reduces the chance of a twist when you are raising the sail. Be sure not to pull it further to avoid shrimping. If you are pulling the halyard horizontally in the cockpit a rotating action works best. You should have a wide (Larry Craig) stance and your rotation should start at your toes. You want to have a line marked on your halyard so you know when to stop pulling. I leave about 10 cm (3.4") of halyard out from sheave. As soon as the sail is up if some one is in a position to see it reaching the sheave they should yell "made". During the hoist the boat should head almost dead downwind. If the asym seems to be blown aft the boat needs to go further down wind to reduce apparent wind velocity . Keep in mind that these boats can go faster than wind speed so if the hoist is done properly you can maintain close to zero apparent wind. The skipper needs to pay close attention to the leach of the sail to be certain that the boat will not go into a gybe. As soon as the sail is up the boat should come up 45 degrees to 135 degrees off the wind. The Tack Line is then pulled the rest of the way. The sheet is trimmed so when sighting from the winch the clew is in line with the shroud. This is a general adjustment and you will find that you can let it out a bit in strong wind and sail deeper and need to tighten it in light air. You may also want to mark you sheets with a marker once you find a good position.
Trimming the Asymmetrical: Multihulls accelerate too fast to make trimming by hand viable. Therefore you cleat the sheet and steer to keep the sail working. This will be a series of S turns as you need to turn down as the boat accelerates and the apparent wind shifts forward. If you can get these S turns to be in synch with the wave action you will have an increased speed and be able to work the boat further down wind. In lighter air be sure you do not have your weight too far aft. Also side to side hull trim is important. In light air it is essential that the skipper drive from the leeward side so that the boat remains tilted to leeward and rig movement is minimized. I recommend putting tell tales about a foot back from the leading edge of the asym. If you have a silicone impregnated cloth you will need to glue the tell tales on with silicone. These will let you sail faster than using the curl of the leading edge. If the leach flaps tighten the leach line just enough that it stops. Do not over tighten it as that will cause the leach to curl which is really slow. Generally rolling or dropping your jib will be faster while you are flying the asym.
Gybing the Asymetrical: It is important to have learned and practiced you gybes before you do them in traffic. If you are coming up on a crowded rounding keep in mind that going outside of all the boats may be the safes, smartes and fastest path. Be sure that the tail of the working sheet is free and ready to run freely once you take it off the winch. Place the lazy sheet on the windward secondary winch. As the skipper eases the boat down wind ease the working sheet out as you pull in on the lazy sheet. As the clew of the sail gets close to the fore stay the old working sheet can be taken off the winch and allowed to run freely. At this point pull in on the new working sheet as fast as possible The skipper needs to steer down at the same rate at which the sail is being let out. Essentially keeping the sail full as he slowly turns down wind. Once the sail is sheeted in on the new tack the turn can be accelerated back up to 135 degrees off dead down wind. One variation is to have a light rapid crew member co up to the pulpit so he can grab the clew and run aft while pulling on it. This get's the sail back even faster.
Dropping the Asymmetrical: Planning where to drop the Asym is key to being in a good position after the take down. In general you ant to sail to a point two boat lengths to windward of where you want to ultimately end up. This is because you will be dipping down wind to drop the sail. Get you upwind head sail up and working before the take down. The easiest takedown to explain is a leeward takedown and then I will explain alternatives. Be sure that the tack line and spin halyard are free to run. The person who will pull the sail in should grab the lazy sheet. The tack Line clutch is released and the foot of the asym is pulled in rapidly. Once the sail forms a cylinder it is held over the bag and the halyard clutch is opened. Most of the time the sail can be easily controlled by one person who pulls it down into the inner corner of the net where the bag is placed. If the sail starts to spill toward the water the clutch can be closed until control of the sail is regained. The skipper again must keep the boat down wind minimizing apparent wind velocity.
Alternative takedowns: While the leeward takedown is the easiest to explain it often is not the best choice for two reasons: In course racing the sail winds up on the wrong side for the next set unless you went to the left layline. Going to the left layline is not a bad tactic because you will be on Starboard tack but will also need to gybe ad will lose your rights as you do so. If you are approaching the mark on port tack you can do the Windward takedown where the boat is quickly turned down wind. The sail is pulled over to what was the windward side and the tack line is released. The boat then turns upwind and the sail column is pulled down as it rests on the windward side of your sails. The advantage here is that person taking the sail down is on the windward side and the sail is being pushed toward the cabin rahter than water. A Mexican takedown lets you drop the sail in the middle of the gybe. The boat is gybed but the asym is not. The sail comes down the windward side of the main sail. This again leaves the sail on what is now the new windward side.