Posted by rick_simonds (rick_simonds@…>)
Chatting, emailing and internet-ing with other owners, I think I’m in
the minority: At best, people seem “iffy” about gunmount spinnakers.
I think they are the greatest invention since bottled beer. I love
mine. I use it almost every time I go sailing, even just daysailing.
It’s wonderful. It works great. Many times I’ve put it up and watched
my speed double or more. I’ve put it up exiting the channel of my
home port and taken it down entering my destination 3 days and 400+
miles later, the windvane steering the whole way. Last summer I was
returning from a weekend trip, I put it up at the tail end of a fleet
of boats who happened to be racing the same direction I was going. As
I passed every boat in the whole fleet I’d get a wave and a
wonderfully confused look. (“Who IS this guy?”) Just a few weeks ago
I just honked past my ultra-hardcore “Type A” friend Frank in his 45
foot racing boat because he didn’t have knowledgeable crew aboard to
put up his spinnaker (I guess you gotta know Frank, but I’m certain
that despite being out for just a pleasant sail he was depressed for
a week because I passed him so resoundingly. I’ll admit it, the
conditions were absolutely perfect for me but I took great delight in
finally, for once, being on the “dishing it out” end with Frank. And,
c’mon, fess up: you love it when you do this to your buddies, too.)
Cruising isn’t about speed of course, but speed is fun and sailing
off the wind is usually dog slow and mind numbingly dull. My gun
mount has made me forever spoiled: I just hate sailing off the wind
without a spinnaker.
There is also still a certain expectation, even a prejudice, about
spinnakers. Other sailors who go daysailing with me see spinnakers as
a huge rigamarole or an “experts only” sail. When they get a chance
to use my gun mount spinnaker they have an eye-opening experience and
usually end up deeply impressed. I also seems most people
equate “spinnaker” exclusively with “racing.” At one time, many years
ago, I had my F32 at the broker with a “For Sale” sign on it.
Fortunately I came to my senses before someone actually bought the
boat but, while it was there, the broker told me to remove the
spinnaker gear and to not mention that the boat even had one unless I
was specifically asked about it. Just the mere presence of it would
scare off some people, he said. I tried to explain that this was not
your typical spinnaker and tried to show him how easy it was to use.
He was having none of it. Remove it, he said, or lose some potential
buyers.
My point is this: I seem to see a lot of pictures of Freedoms with
the pole removed. It also seems that a lot of owners here and
elsewhere are searching for alternatives, replacing the gun mount
chute with a cruising spinnaker, adding widgets like spinnaker socks
and such, but mostly they are just removing the whole thing and going
without.
“Different boats, different long splices” and all, but I simply adore
this sail exactly as it is. I find it very easy to handle and wildly
fun, 500 square feet of pure sailing satisfaction. It’s the single
best feature of my boat.
What’s up? Am I weird?
I’m really curious, why don’t people seem to like these things?
