Posted by Herman and Gail Schiller (hschiller2@…>)
Bob,
The whole thing is relatively simple.
-
You have two lines to the tips of the pole that come back
directly to the cockpit cleats, these simply control the pivot angle
of the pole relative to the boat’s centerline. These lines don’t
require much force under sail, unlike the lines on a free-flying clew.
2. You also have another two lines that typically start at line
clutches on the cabin top, thence forward to a set of blocks at the
base of the bow pulpit, and thence to blocks at the rear of the
gunmount and thence to blocks at the tips of the spinnaker pole and
finally to the clews of the spinnaker. These lines serve to pull the
clews out to the ends of the pole while flying the spinnaker.
3. You have a line that goes through the inside of the spinnaker
storage bag that’s fastened along the port lifeline stanchions and
the gunmount/pulpit. This retrieval line is fastened to the
center-rear of the spinnaker.
4. Lastly, you have a spinnaker halyard. On my F25, the halyard
was fastened to the cockpit end of the spinnaker retrieval line, (4) above.
The way things work is that you set up the spinnaker pole to be
approximately at right angles to the apparent wind. Then you pull the
clews out of the storage bag to the spinnaker pole tips. Then you use
the halyard to raise the spinnaker; because the clews are under
control, the spinnaker is under full control. You then rotate the
pole via its control lines to trim the spinnaker ( slight collapsing
of the leading edge is ideal).
To retrieve, you use the retrieval line while slowly easing the
halyard. After the upper and middle of the spinnaker is retrieved
into the bag, the lines to the clews are eased, and retrieval line is
used to retract the bottom of the spinnaker into the bag. All this
from the cockpit !!
Herm
Rick
One day when we closer to the new sail season I would like to hear
the ins and outs of gunmount and how to rig and fly the kite. Right
now I know I have a spinnaker, pole, and a gunmount but not sure I
have all the rigging.Bob
From: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of rick_simonds
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 6:44 PM
To: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FreedomOwnersGroup] Re: Are Freedom Yachts as fun as they look?— In
mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup%40yahoogroups.comFreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
,
“Freeman Dodsworth”
<freemandodsworth@…> wrote:Hi all,
I lurk around here while I look for a new boat. Perhaps a F32 or
F33
if I can find the right one. My question for you is simple: Are
the
Freedoms as much fun to sail as a sloop/cutter or ketch? Can you
get
the thrill of the drive that a big genny gives you? Are the cat
ketches and sloops simply too easy to be really exhilerating? Or
are
they as much darn fun as they look to be? Silly question. But
still…
Thanks again.Freeman
“Fun” is subjective and everyone will find it in a different boat. I
get a lot of satisfaction that my boat essentially sails itself with
minimum fuss. I spend my time relaxing, cooking good food and
enjoying the company of friends.I agree with another poster who said dinghy sailing is where
the “fun” of sailing is. I’d add that, sailing exhilaration-wise, the
first time you really get a perfect day and you get a sailboard up on
a full blast plane, just the last foot of the tail touching the
water, your butt about 6" off the water, the whole board just
skipping off the tops of the waves, even finally getting overpowered
and physically flung about 20 feet by the sail as you and the whole
board crash and burn, …the feel of raw power, acceleration and
speed is laugh-out-loud overwhelming. THAT’S fun. “Sit-down”
sailing, especially bigger boat sit-down sailing, is more of an inner
fun.Still, I will add what I think is a universal Freedom “Nothin’-But-
Fun” statement:Gunmount spinnakers are FUN: A spinnaker that you are actually
willing to fly is worth 1000 spinnakers that stay forever in the bag.
Even singlehanded, as soon as I’m a bit off the wind mine goes up and
the boat leaps to life and steers with the touch of a finger on the
wheel. It never gets old. I get a dopey grin every time.Rick
Tallahassee