EXPERT ON BOARD
YM EXPERT Rachael Sprot steps aboard to help. This month she explains how to gain confidence with the spinnaker
Downwind cruising can be faster and save you from motor-sailing with extra canvas
Conventional kites aren’t hard to fly in the right conditions once you’ve got it straight in your head
‘I have a confession to make,’ said my friend and fellow sailing instructor, Liz Le Mare, ‘I need spinnaker training.’ I was confused, since she’s often racing around the Solent as a regatta skipper. ‘The first mate does the foredeck for me,’ she explained, ‘I’m always at the back of the boat.’ It sounded to me like a bad case of backstay hugging – which afflicts all instructors – and that she needed to show the forestay some love. I agreed to an afternoon of training on her family boat, a Westerly Konsort, Bifröst. Her mother, Juliet, and husband, Richard, volunteered to crew.
DIAGNOSIS: Liz is not alone: spinnakers make many seasoned sailors quake in their seaboots. The big, bright dragon in the sky appears to be governed by a different set of rules from white sails. Downwind sailing is under-taught in most sailing courses and spinnakers don’t feature on the RYA Yachtmaster syllabus.
On many boats it’s a sail which lies dormant below the vee-berth. If its hibernation is interrupted, it’s usually under the skipper’s duress during a one-off event like the Round the Island Race. Unsurprisingly, the poor thing comes out in a bad mood, snorting fire and fury.
Despite the huge advances in gennakers and code sails, a symmetric spinnaker remains one of the best ways to sail downwind. Without one, or the skills to use it, you’ll find yourself resorting to the engine. Rather than thinking of them as a party piece for special occasions, they should be part of our everyday wardrobe.
RACHAEL SPROT, former director of Rubicon 3, is a Yachtmaster Examiner with an impressive number of sea miles logged, from Lofoten to St Lucia and beyond. TURN THE PAGE to see what she suggests for Liz...
CHOOSING YOUR SAIL
In a perfect world every cruising boat would have an all-purpose spinnaker to cover a broad range of wind angles. A medium-weight cloth is ideal for this. Lightweight cloth won’t cope so well with helming infractions and heavyweight cloth won’t fly in light airs.
In the real world, a brand-new spinnaker tends to be low on the priority list. Sailmakers will disagree indignantly, but unlike white sails, a spinnaker doesn’t need to be a perfect fit. A second-hand sail from a similar boat will often work well enough for occasional use. Liz and Richard were lent a spinnaker designed for a Hunter 32.
Made 25 years ago by the cadets at Castle Cove Sailing Club in Weymouth it had bee
