The spinnaker is a beautiful sail and adds tremendous excitement to the racing experience. But the new racer does not usually get a lot of instructions on flying a spinnaker so typically she will go sail in a non-spinnaker class first. We will try to reduce the mystery to spinnaker flying and this section may also serve as guide to potential crew so they can understand the principles involved.

The problem with Spinnaker handling descriptions is that it is different from boat to boat. Although the control lines which are attached to the spinnaker are fairly consistent, the way the lines are fed into the cockpit vary greatly and will have to be determined on a boat-per-boat basis. So the following guide should be taken as a general description of the process and as step is described, perhaps you will notice what line on the boat we are talking about. Spinnaker pole arrangements are also varied and some of the different variations will be described here for the budding "foredeck" person.

Most of these descriptions will apply more to smaller to medium sized keelboats. Larger performance sailboats may have more variations and larger equipment but there will also be more people assigned to accomplish the task. So as not to confuse, we will stick to the basic equipment, the way one would learn to fly a spinnaker in a sailing school.

Before you would even venture to fly a spinnaker, you'll have to learn to pack it. The technique for packing depends a little bit on the size of the spinnaker but the principle is exactly the same. First you need to identify the different parts of a spinnaker.

The part of the spinnaker that is attached to the halyard is known as the "Head". There are two clews to which you then attach the spinnaker sheets/guys. It is important to figure out the orientation of the sail and normally, sailmakers will do this via color coding. Typically a green stripe runs from the head to the clew of the side that is intended to be on the starboard side of the boat. A red stripe on the other side of the sail is made to lead to the clew that is on the port side of the sail.

When packing a spinnaker, the important step is first hold the "Head" (if this is a big sail, stick it under your arm to free your hands. Now start tracing one edge of the sail (red or green stripe) and using an accordion technique, bring folds of the sail edge to one of your hands until you get to the clew. Now stick the accordion folds, the clew and the head under your arm again and start with the remaining sail edge until you get to the next clew.

Once you have the two clews and head together, you should hold on to them so they don't get separated and stuff the spinnaker into the bag, with the bottom of the spinnaker going in first and the clews and head ending up on top of the bag. You will not have to worry about the bottom part of the spinnaker since it will come out correctly during a hoist as long as you followed each edge as explained above.

Some boats may not use a bag. The important part of this lesson is to end up with two clews and one head at the top of the spinnaker container so the same principle applies. Also on bigger boats, the head of the spinnaker is passed through a ring with rubber bands, then a rubber band is slipped on the sail at regular intervals. The spinnaker then ends up as a long snakelike length of cloth. This technique is used to delay the opening of the spinnaker until it is completely hoisted.

Before you can hoist a spinnaker, you must have the proper rigging to control the sail. You will need a pair of spinnaker sheets. It needs to be attached to each spinnaker clew and then is fed to a block in the back and outermost part of the boat on either side of the boat. The other end is then fed to another block to add purchase or to a winch and finally it is fed to a cleat.

At the foredeck of the boat, you will have a spinnaker pole. The spinnaker pole is usually hooked on to the mast and is hoisted up and down using a "Pole Car Lift". This will hoist the inboard end to the appropriate height. When not in use the inboard end of the car is kept close to deck level.

The opposite end of the pole is held up by another line called a "Topping Lift". Sometimes a pole will have a line that goes from one end of the pole to another and the topping lift is attached to the middle of this line. This line is known as a bridle. This keeps the pole reversible for a maneuver called "end-for-end" jibing. The topping lift holds the weight of the spinnaker pole and this allows the foredeck person to attach it to the spinnaker lines without having to be a weightlifter.

Another device is used to keep the pole from bouncing upwards. At the bottom of the pole, another line is once again attached and when trimmed tight, it will keep the pole from moving beyond the extended position of the topping lift line. This line is called the "Foreguy".

Although there are two spinnaker sheets, once the spinnaker is in use, only one of the lines functions as a spinnaker sheet. The other line is called an "Afterguy" (also known as the line attached to the side of the spinnaker where the pole is). When you jibe the boat, the pole switches side and the names of the lines switch with it.

There are many variants to this and you will have to check with other boat owners to see how this is supposed to be set up. One variation, in smaller keelboats, is the use of continuous spinnaker sheets. This means that instead of two separate sheets for the spinnaker, one long one is used. This is helpful when only one person does the spinnaker sheet and afterguy on a smaller boat.

The other variation is that some smaller boats do not use a foreguy. Instead, "tweaker" or "twing" lines are used. These lines are attached to the sheets using small blocks and are led to the deck usually from a point slightly forward of the mast and at each side of the boat. The twing lines exert a downward pressure on the spinnaker sheets when the spinnaker is flying which serves the same function as the foreguy.

In bigger boats, the clew of the spinnaker is controlled during maneuvers by the use of a second line attached to the clew and is called a "lazy guy".

In some smaller keelboats may not use a pole car lift and may instead hook the inboard end of the pole to a fixed point on the mast. The pole may also be stored on the boom instead of the deck. The boom has some sort of ring that can hold one end of the people and the other end of the pole is hooked on to something at the mast or at the front part of the boom. This kind of storage method is good for smaller boats since it keeps weight off the foredeck (both the pole and the crew member) and it also prevents the pole from interfering with the jib sheets. Another variant of this is called the "Trolley System" where a bungee is attached to the pole and the bungee goes from the end of the boom over the mast and back to the other end of the boom on the opposite side. The side of the pole is attached to the bungee at all times. This system, if the pole is light enough, will hold the pole in place at the back end of the boom just from bungee tension and does not require any other method of holding the pole to the boom at the back end. The front end of the pole is still clipped on to something on the mast.

When performing the more common "bear away set" spinnaker maneuver (which means you are on starboard tack and simply bear away to go downwind), the spinnaker bag is placed on the port side of the boat. It is hung there if there are lifelines and is oriented so that the starboard (green) clew is sticking out towards the bow, the port (red) clew is sticking out towards the stern and the head is attached to the spinnaker halyard. Both sheets are preattached ahead of time but note that all lines leading to the spinnaker in the bag must be outside of the forestay and starboard shrouds,(in case of the starboard sheet) and is outside of the port shrouds (in the case of the port sheet).

When the spinnaker pole is lowered on deck (i.e. not stored on the boom), the jib sheets must sit above the pole at all times.

You are now confident enough to try to hoist your spinnaker. Let me give you a tip. For your first few tries at launching the spinnaker, tie your boat to the dock and point it downwind. If possible have the wind positioned as shown in the chart below. Obviously the wind may not cooperate and allow you to tie down so nicely as shown but you may be able to locate a dock that allows you to position a boat similar to this.

This is the approximate orientation of the boat just after you turned around the windward mark and are starting to head downwind. The boat's equivalent position on the race course is shown on the right. 

If you have the opportunity to do this on the dock on a not so windy day, it will ease the stress out of flying a spinnaker. It also allows you to teach a foredeck crew to do this slowly without having to worry about other factors such as waves, accidental jibes, and broaches. You'll have more than enough opportunity to experience all of these on the water. Trust me.

It is at this stage that you begin hoisting the spinnaker. Hoisting a spinnaker when a boat is on a starboard tack and you simply bear away to go downwind is referred to as a bear away set. The preparatory activity to spinnaker launching happens before the hoist. First the pole has to be preset. This means attaching the afterguy to the outboard end of the pole and putting the pole up on the mast (either by using the pole car lift plus topping lift or physically carrying and hooking on to the mast). So the pole will now be hanging up on the mast with just an afterguy going through the end and it is being lifted up by the topping lift. The pole should be positioned approximately 45 degrees from the centerline of the boat. This is a good starting position. Then the afterguy needs to be pulled in to do a spinnaker "prefeed". Basically, this involves rocking the afterguy until the clew goes over the forestay and ends up near the outboard end of the pole. It is important that you get the sail over the forestay or it will not fill.

At the point shown in the picture, the foredeck (or other assigned crew member) can then hoist the spinnaker. Hoist as fast as you can because if it does not fill in properly, the spinnaker can twist around the forestay and you will have a potential disaster.

Notice at this point that I did not mention the jib/Genoa. This is because immediately after you turned around the mark, you really leave the jib alone until after the hoist. After the spinnaker is flying the foredeck now tends to the jib by dousing it. Typically, it is not eased after the turn because it may interfere with spinnaker hoisting. Keeping it trimmed in keeps it away from the spinnaker.

At the point that the spinnaker is hoisted, the middle crew should FIRST pay attention to cleating the afterguy and setting the pole so that it is approximately perpendicular to the apparent wind. ALWAYS CLEAT THE AFTERGUY BEFORE THE TRIMMING THE SHEET. Only after the pole is in position and the guy is cleated should you start trimming the other sheet. If you do not do this in this order, the spinnaker may go out of control and so will the boat. 

If you don't cleat the guy, it is possible that the spinnaker will end up completely on the other side of the forestay (in this case the port side) and in strong winds, you will find that individuals on the left side of the boat will find themselves very close to the water, if not immersed in it. This is because once the spinnaker has crossed the forestay, the force in the spinnaker is now sideways. 

So another rule to note is that NEVER LET AN AFTERGUY OR SHEET CROSS THE FORESTAY. By the way, the force of a spinnaker could be strong enough to smack the pole on the forestay that is not cleated, with the severe consequence of snapping the forestay and thus losing the mast. 

A third rule in case is a variant of the first two rules. If the boat begins to broach (i.e. the bow of the boat is digging into the waves and the boat is twisting direction either into the wind or away from the wind in an out of control way), you must ease the pressure by ALWAYS EASING THE SHEET BUT NEVER EASING THE GUY.This kind of discussion may scare you from flying a spinnaker but in reality, following the few basic rules prevents disaster.

Another thing that happens when the spinnaker is initially trimmed is that someone needs to harden the foreguy or tweaker line on the pole side (afterguy tweaker) to put downward pressure on the pole. This shoudl be automatically done with a foreguy. Each time the pole needs to be adjusted, the foreguy is eased, and as soon as the position of the pole is fixed, the foreguy is hardened so that the pole stays in place. When only tweakers are used, you need to trim in only the tweaker on the afterguy. The sheet side tweaker is eased.

Once the spinnaker is flying, trimming it is straightforward. Always make sure the pole is approximately perpendicular to the apparent wind. Then trim the sheet so that you have a slight curl at the leading edge. The trimmer should sit on the side of the boat where the pole is and be looking up at the edge of the spinnaker constantly. You need to see the curl because an undertrimmed sail is faster than an overtrimmed one.

The skipper should drive the boat so that it is heading at the lowest possible course downwind while keeping the pressure on the spinnaker. To do this properly, the trimmer needs to tell the skipper what the pressure is. When the pressure is high, the skipper can head down. When the trimmer is losing pressure, the boat can be headed up. The extent that one goes downwind or headed up (i.e. optimum downwind angle) depends on each boat but typically, the stronger the wind, the lower one can go, and the lighter the wind, the higher one goes, so much so that it looks similar to upwind tacking angles. This can range therefore from DDW (Dead Down Wind) to 45 degrees off the wind.

Jibing is complicated to discuss because there are different ways of  jibing due to the way the pole is handled. Below are three common types of jibing maneuvers: dip-pole, end-for-end, trolley system. They are listed in order of common use from larger boats to smaller boats.

The purpose of jibing is to change the boat's direction in such a way that the you cross DDW and head the boat to a reciprocal downwind position from its current position. The general procedure requires that the boat be first brought to a DDW position. Then the pole is detached from the afterguy.  At this point, the main is sheeted in to centerline or manually swung over to the opposite jibe (in a smaller boat) and then slowly eased to the opposite side. The foredeck then hooks the pole to the new afterguy and positions the pole on the mast (if it changed position). Boat is turned away from DDW to desired angle and pole position is altered to correspond with the apparent wind. Foreguys are hardened and tweakers on the new pole side are trimmed in, and sheet side tweakers are eased.

If the boat is moved during this maneuver, the spinnaker may collapse. Here's a trick to use to keep the spinnaker full. Look at a point on land that lines up with the center of the spinnaker. Then as the boat turns, turn the spinnaker sheet and guy accordingly to keep the spinnaker lined up to the same point.

From the driver's side of things, the skipper should keep the boat in DDW position until the pole is in place. This will keep the spinnaker from collapsing in the first place. Also keeping the main in, away from the shrouds during the jibe, will keep the wind on the spinnaker.

Jibing the Spinnaker - Dip Pole

A Dip Pole maneuver differs from the above description only from this point of view. The inboard end of the pole, which is attached to the mast is left on the mast. The outboard end is detached from the afterguy, and the topping lift is lowered so that the pole points downwards, enough so that it can cross the forestay (pole car lift may have to be lifted temporarily to lift the inboard end). Then, the pole is attached to the new afterguy and the topping lift and pole car lift are readjusted to the proper height and position.

Jibing the Spinnaker - End for End

In the end-for-end method, the pole needs to have a bridle and the topping lift is attached to the bridle. In this configuration, the ends of the pole are interchangeable and when not attached to mast or guy, it should balance perfectly in the middle so that the foredeck crew does not have to lift its weight.

To perform this type of jibe, the pole end at the mast is released first. Then the old inboard end is attached to the new afterguy as the other end is being detached from the old afterguy. Thus, you are exchanging one end of the pole with the other end of the pole. Usually the topping lift is not adjusted since the pole remains at the same height.

Jibing the Spinnaker - Trolley

A Trolley system is used typically on smaller keelboats with light spinnaker poles. These poles are usually kept on the boom and is attached to the boom with a bungee cord. The bungee cord goes from the end of the boom towards to front, goes around the mast and comes back to the end of the boom on the opposite side. One end of the pole is permanently attached to the bungee cord using a small block so it is free to move forward and backward from boom to mast but when pushed back on the boom, and the front end of the pole is clipped on to something at the mast end of the boom, the pole stays in place, just from the bungee tension.

To jibe using a trolley system more coordination is needed between the person jibing the main and the foredeck manipulating the pole. First the skipper goes DDW. Then, the foredeck detaches the pole. At that moment, the main is then jibed. This will now give the foredeck room to push the pole back into a position that allows him to attach to the new afterguy.

The reason for the need for this coordination is that if the Main is jibed before the pole is removed, the pole will hit the main and may punch a hole in the sail. So the Main is jibed only after the pole is removed and outboard end reoriented so as to point to the new pole side.

The pole is then attached to the new afterguy and tweakers adjusted. And you are all set to turn the boat higher if desired. Notice that this kind of system does not require any adjustment to the topping lift since when the pole is pushed out, the height will be the same as before. In a trolley system, the pole ends are not interchangeable since one end is attached to the bungee permanently.

Many racing disasters happen during dousing of the spinnaker. Douses usually happen near marks so there is usually a lot of traffic. Thus, allow enough time for this maneuver to occur without incident.

First, prepare the boat for going upwind (adjust backstay, cunningham, outhaul, aft lowers, vang, etc.). Then hoist the jib. A windward douse is easier since one does not have to reach under the jib. At the moment that you need to douse, a crew member needs to handle the spinnaker halyard. The trimmer releases the spinnaker sheets and guy. The foredeck grabs on to the foot of the spinnaker and asks the halyard to be released. Then he pulls the spinnaker into the boat as fast as possible. Release only as much halyard is necessary but not enough to bring the sail to the water. Also a crew member will need to ease the sheet or afterguy and pull it towards the bow so that the foredeck can bring the spinnaker clews in. This is the opposite of the prefeeding step in launching. This is a step often forgotten and has left many a foredeck hand shouting "ease the sheet!".

The jibe set is an advanced maneuver and is different from the bear away set described earlier because one needs to jibe the boat with the jib before the spinnaker hoist. This requires a lot more coordination. Jibe sets are done when the quick jibe puts the boat into a desired position on the inner side of the leeward mark or if wind shifts favor that that jibe. The disadvantage of a jibe set (vs. hoisting and then jibing quickly after) is that it brings one closer to other boats on the starboard layline and there is the potential for traffic problems.

To do a jibe set, one needs to temporarily fly the spinnaker with no pole since the jib will be in the way of the pole during the jibe. Skipper should keep the boat DDW to keep the spinnaker flying. Then the pole is set on the port side. The afterguy to-be is already attached to the pole but the pole is kept out of the way until the jib has crossed over.