DaySailer.org Forum

I've gotten bits and pieces from digging through various threads, but I'm left with a few questions. My boat came with a spinnaker, and has all the hardware to fly a kite, but no lines. I feel like I'm ready to take the spin for a spin, so, what should I buy? I know 3/16th's has been recommended for halyard, and I'm assuming I can use the same for the pole control line as well? Sturdy shockcord for the pole downhaul (down because that's the way the hardware is set up). What about the sheets?
The most pressing question I have though, is attachment. Should I just tie the lines on to the sail clew/head? Snap shackles? I've seen sister clips mentioned, but I'm not sure how to attach those. Just some quick and dirty advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Sister clips vs knots: this is a matter of convenience, and speed, particularly if you are racing in conditions where you don't know which side you will launch the spinnaker on, until you are on the water. If you need to change the side, you need to disconnect the sheets from the sail, then connect them to each other, pull them to the correct side and re-attach to the sail.

With sister clips, one half of each clip is tied to the sail and the sheet respectively. To disconnect, you separate the two halves with a quick twisting motion. You then can connect the "free" halves to connect the two sheets for the maneuver described earlier.

You can do the same with knots, but you will untie and tie a total of 4 bowline's... When I first tried out my spinnaker, I didn't have clips for the lines, although they were on the sail. I just went with the knots and haven't felt the need to upgrade. Not ruling it out, but it's not come to the top of the list so far. (For our races we rarely have true downwind courses, more often it's a broad reach, so it's generally possible to set up the spinnaker ahead of time.)

For the head of the sail you need a swivel, so the sail can untwist. I simply tie on the halyard, using two half hitches or a buntline hitch. Both of these knots tighten under load. The former is easier to tie, the latter more secure. For the sheets, I tie bowlines with a generous loop because I attach the pole claw to it -- mine pole otherwise has a tendency to slide away from the clew along the sheet.

The lines I use are described here. Those should work for you, except that your bungee needs to be stronger if it's a downhaul. (If you don't know how strong, perhaps get shock cord of sufficient length and double, triple and quadruple it until it works for you.)

The length of the sheets needs to be at least twice the boat size, as, before the launch, one of the sheets needs to go from where you store the sail, to the bow, around the forestay, around the shroud, all the way to the block in the back and then forward to where you cleat it off.

powpowhunter - please post up pictures when you get all of your rigging in place. I'm slowly collecting bits as well. I ran out of summer this year to fly a spinnaker, but hopefully next year. I'm specifically interested in seeing how you run and cleat your halyard and whether you have cleats for your spinnaker sheets.

I have sister clips on a bungee cord for my Sunfish daggerboard cord and they work great - I can imagine they would be useful for the spinnaker sheets too. I was planning on using bowline knots to start with, but will probably take Greenlake's suggestion at some point.

Our rigger tied the guy/sheet lines and used the brummel hooks for the head of the sail. The lines were color coded for port and starboard We are new to the spinnaker but it helped us that the sailmaker also put red and green seams on the sail from the tack.

You might also try a plastic stopper ball on the end of each sheet/guy. The ball must be large enough not to pull through the grommet on the spinnaker. Just push a loop through the grommet from the back side of the spinnaker and then twist the ball end around to the front side of the chute and thread it through the loop and pull tight. This should secure the sheet/guy to the sail. It is also easy to release by just pulling on the ball and opening the loop. No knots to tie or untie, making spinnaker changes quick and easy.

Hello, I too am collecting the spinnaker gear and getting ready to try my hand. I bought the pole and ordered the spinnaker from Intensity sails today. I know where the sheet cleats will go. The boat has the holes where they used to be. I am thinking cam cleats because I have a set of bronze ones. I've gleaned some info here already such as how to figure the length of the sheets. I still need to find out how long the halyard will need to be, and how to rig it. I have an old proctor racing mast. It's tapered aluminum with a weird tube welded into the spot where the Spinnaker halyard goes. The jib halyard is not the original, I'll be buying new shrouds and fore-stay and jib halyards this summer. The jib halyard has two blocks for wire where it passes through the mast to run down inside the bolt-rope groove. The Spinnaker halyard tube (if I am correct) is just above the fore-stay and there is a place to add a block above and below. The whole area seems busy. It looks like the Spinnaker halyard just slides along inside that tube I mentioned and runs down inside behind the bolt-rope for the main with the jib halyard. I don't know if it uses a block or what. Has anyone used these masts, or one like it? I could use some advise. Thank you.

If in doubt you can always rig an external spinnaker halyard. All that needs is a single block on the outside of the mast about a few inches above the forestay.