Code Zero...development or what?

[Peter Taylor]

Hi David,

I can see how a striker works if you are pulling the sail into a chute so everything happens quickly; otherwise I'd be worried about some of the sail hitting the water. But I suppose the continuity with the halyard is the secret.  The 49er system reminds me of the set up on a racing Seafly when I bought it - ropes and pulleys everywhere!  It's  a lot more sophisticated than my system of gathering the foot before dropping the sail into the cockpit behind the main and then stuffing it all done the companionway ready for me to fall over. 

I didn't realise my ordinary sail bag, with a rope at the bottom to tie it down, is actually a "turtle" - I may buy a properly designed bag type turtle since it looks like it would be much easier for repacking the sail ready for the next use - which is my main problem at the moment!

Peter

[David Hudson]

Good morning Peter

Some, if not most of my wanderings have an element of Heath Robinson about them but I enjoy seeing how the crew at the thinking end of any dinghy has approached a task. The result has to be efficient if not elegant, although the two often go together. Phil Evans at the front of Steve Goacher's very successful Flying 15's, does all their fitting out and has some excellent ideas.

The 49'er diagram is very much overkill. We don't have the length of luff to cope with and is not practicable with deck layouts such as ours: but the object is the same. Get the spinnaker under control and stowed as quickly as possible.

My proposed striker line halves the length of luff and a striker bar in the bow gathers in the material into a manageable size for stowing in say a companionway turtle. Anything over and above that is a case of, "sweeten to taste".

By the way a bone to pick. Given Amy E. has a yellow hull, I would have loved a yellow/white spinnaker. Ah well, I will have to think again.

David

[David Hudson]

And here is my Spinnaker striker bar, complete with "no snag" roller....

ps. I dress to the left.

[David Hudson]

Damn, I knew I'd put my pastry roller somewhere.

Back to the kitchen table.

[Graham W]

Several months back, I referred to a batwing problem with the head and tack of a standard spinnaker on a top down furler http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,1078.msg7453.html#msg7453

Problem solved - see the attached photo.  This is a new spinnaker, the reinforcing patches on which look very similar to the old stiff ones.  Hyde couldn't use webbing to reinforce the head and tack (I don't know why) but their solution certainly works.  I just hope that it stands the test of time.

Swallow Boats have uploaded a whole load of new videos to their YouTube channel in the past month, including one of a BRe going like a train downwind with a spinnaker https://www.youtube.com/user/Swallowboats/

Is it my imagination or do the videos of the BC23 appear to show it down by the bow a bit? Perhaps it's just the contrast with the BRe planing and surely beating Matt's old speed record of 11 knots in a BR20.