Solo Sailing with Spinnaker

[David Whyte]

Greetings from Australia

I have just ordered my Bayraider, due in October, and am in 2 minds about a having a spinnaker. A lot of my sailing will be solo or with my wife, who is not keen on using a spinnaker, and was wondering if anyone uses a spinnaker solo or is there just too many strings to pull. I am only thinking about light winds.

There are now orders for 5 BRs in Australia so they are becoming popular even before the first one hits the water. Now I just have to work out the colour and a name

Regards
David
Lake Macquarie NSW

[Craic]

David,
congratulations to your decision for a BayRaider. You won't be disappointed.

Nothing wrong with spinnakering a BR as a singlehander. Due to the short mainmast the spi is not overwhelmingly large, mine is 17 sq. mtrs. and that#s about as big as you can ever get it on that boat.

Sure things can get hairy, but you can always fill up the tank then and sort things out in relative ease.

About the colour of your boat, may I recommend the battleship grey for the hull, it is an unusual hull colour but it looks excellent, especially in connection with the tan sails.

Good luck,
Claus

[David Whyte]

Thanks for the advice Claus this forum looks very useful for new BR owners

On that I will probably go with a spinnaker as I had to let Denman Marine know early in the build.
The Battleship grey looks good with the wooden trim and the colour is very familiar to me as in my youth, which was some time ago, I was a sailor in the RAN.

I am looking forward to the boat and plan on doing a lot of camping from it with a 4 week trip planned for next year through the Whitsunday Islands.

Regards
David

[Craic]

David,
if you plan going on a long camping trip, you may want to look at a fairly good cockpit tent solution at http://www.swallowboats.co.uk/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,52/expv,0/topic,250.0 .
And there is another thread 'bed + table'.

Pity one cannot search this forum for keywords. You must look around a bit. Typically the more interesting subjects have more views, so when you sort the threads in the order of number of views, you find the most relevant contributions more easily.

[David Whyte]

About the colour of your boat, may I recommend the battleship grey for the hull, it is an unusual hull colour but it looks excellent, especially in connection with the tan sails.

Good luck,
Claus

HI Claus I went with a bluey grey colour as show in the attachment. I have had it a week now and the few sails I have had have been great. The water ballast is great for solo sailing.

[Craic]

David,
my goodness, I completely forgot that you have springtime there now. What a gorgeous weather and setting, and your boat is a real looker.
I like the white gunter yard. That standard now our your own insistence?
Happy sailing!
Claus

[Andrew Denman]

I like the white gunter yard. That standard now our your own insistence?
Claus

Builders kindness!

Andrew