Cruising Chute limits

[Ian Bamsey]

On a recent trip we have the wind behind. I put up the cruising chute for a while. It was quite windy, around 8 to 10 knots. I start to wonder what limit I should set on the wind speed for this type of light weight sail?

[Robert Hughes]

It depends on the wind range the particular sail was designed for, and on your nerve...  When I got quotes for chutes years ago some of the sailmakers offered a choice of cloth weights, but they said apart from the very lightweight ones the sail would withstand more wind than you would dare to fly it in.  I guess it's a case of asking yourself whether the boat is completely in control, and whether you are sure you can get it down in a stronger gust.

[Robert Sheridan]

It is easy to get caught out as when running down wind fast it is easy not to notice that the wind speed has gone up.  We judge it by looking astern and estimating the wind speed from the waves, any significant crests (probably equates to a F3 tops) and it comes down.  If the swell is getting up we get it down sooner.  Learnt this the hard way when the bowsprit fitting exploded on a boat I was crewing whilst we were wondering if we should take the chute down.

[boatsmith]

What is the big ugly on the mast?

[Roger]

Hi Ian,

My chute is 0.75oz 236 square feet and I have flown it when gusting over 20 knots. As a downwind sail the apparent wind is less - it is gusting over 20, but you are doing 10-12 knots, so you still only have 10 knots apparent.

[Ian Bamsey]

boatsmith said:

What is the big ugly on the mast?

The big ugly on the mast has gone. Along with the mast! This post is 18 months old and since then I've rebuilt the boat. The top and bottom of the wooden mast were rotten. I used the centre sections to make wooden inserts in a new aluminium tube. Not so ugly now.

[Ian Bamsey]

Thanks Roger for your ever useful input. 

[boatsmith]

I once did a race from Fort lauderdale to Palm Beachon a well sailed J35. Raining and almost zip wind at the start.Whole crew hungover. @ peeps on deck , the rest of the sitting on the floor boards below. Just trying to keep steerage. The wind backed a little. We  had a 1/2 oz spinnaker on board that belonged to one of the owners of Mack sails who also owns a J35. This kite was only taped together,,,no stichting except for the leeches, foot and clews. We got the kite up very carefully as the wind was still barely measurable. One hour later we had 25-30 apparent, everyone was piled in the back of the bus and BIG grins were everywhere.We were doing 16  knots over the ground ( a couple easy from the gulfstream but haulin' buns nonetheless). I was the bowman on this crew and I was crouched behind the skipper. He says to me, maybe we should take this down,,,, AS a was moving forward we rounded up and somehow the halyard  was released inadvertently. The kite skyed out and we gathered it up and continued under white sails. if the halyard had not been blown I am sure that when the kite popped open again we would have had lots of red tatters instead of a kite. Twas a great day on the water. Spinnakers are built of nylon which has a lot of stretch. When to take it down depends on the weight of the nylon(1/2oz is alight chute, 3/4 oz is regular,  1 1/2oz is heavier and so on. ! 1/2 oz is  heavier than most folks need. ) and the skill of the crew. Really fast is quite a bit of power and needs to be controlled or things break. I love to go FAST

[Robert Sheridan]

We still remember a high speed run on your T30 with a Very high speed spinnaker drop, it was great fun.

boatsmith said:

I once did a race from Fort lauderdale to Palm Beachon a well sailed J35. Raining and almost zip wind at the start.Whole crew hungover. @ peeps on deck , the rest of the sitting on the floor boards below. Just trying to keep steerage. The wind backed a little. We  had a 1/2 oz spinnaker on board that belonged to one of the owners of Mack sails who also owns a J35. This kite was only taped together,,,no stichting except for the leeches, foot and clews. We got the kite up very carefully as the wind was still barely measurable. One hour later we had 25-30 apparent, everyone was piled in the back of the bus and BIG grins were everywhere.We were doing 16  knots over the ground ( a couple easy from the gulfstream but haulin' buns nonetheless). I was the bowman on this crew and I was crouched behind the skipper. He says to me, maybe we should take this down,,,, AS a was moving forward we rounded up and somehow the halyard  was released inadvertently. The kite skyed out and we gathered it up and continued under white sails. if the halyard had not been blown I am sure that when the kite popped open again we would have had lots of red tatters instead of a kite. Twas a great day on the water. Spinnakers are built of nylon which has a lot of stretch. When to take it down depends on the weight of the nylon(1/2oz is alight chute, 3/4 oz is regular,  1 1/2oz is heavier and so on. ! 1/2 oz is  heavier than most folks need. ) and the skill of the crew. Really fast is quite a bit of power and needs to be controlled or things break. I love to go FAST

[Rod Jones]

I once sailed Boatsmith's Tiki 30 Abaco from Miami to Jupiter in 20 knots + breeze/seas with the asymetrical up all the way down the coast. We were surfing from 10-20 knots of boat speed for most of the way. I've also sailed my Seawind 1000 and Maine Cat many thousands of miles offshore under spinnaker and sometimes with screacher.

I think the most important thing is to have the mainsail up in addition to the spinnaker, when the wind comes up. Sometimes I see people sailing with the mainsail down, and with only the spinnaker up. Seems more simple, but when it comes time to douse, you can't drive the boat deep off the wind and blanket the spinnaker with the mainsail while you douse. It can be big trouble to get the spinnaker down without blanketing by the mainsail if the wind really picks up.

When we approached the Jupiter inlet, I got into a debate with the guy I was sailing with about dousing the spinnaker before we sailed between the jetties into the inner harbor. I wanted to douse the spinnaker before we entered, and he wanted to leave it up, and douse in smooth water on the inside. There was substantial seas running through the inlet. He finally relinquished and we doused outside the breakwaters. Under mainsail alone we caught one large steep wave while entering the Jupiter inlet, took off and surfed that little Tiki 30 into the high teens down the face of that wave. After the entrance we both agreed that we were glad the spinnaker was not hoisted!