Spinnaker for 5.8 and A class

I put an old Hobie18SX chute on my old wooden Catnip Acat. Works great. I finished 6th in Jacksonville's Rudder Club Mug Race, a 40 mile river pursuit race last month, caught and passed by a Supercat RC-30, 2 Supercat 27s, a Marstrom A-cat with chute, and a Marstrom 20 with chute. The other 160 boats were passed back there somewhere behind us. Great fun. I also have a potentially higher performance F18 chute but tuning it on this boat has been problematic.

Thanks dacarls but your answer gives me more questions, as a noob to spins is it impracticle to have 1 spin setup to switch between the two boats?

A 5.8 you would want a 25sqm kite where as on an A you would want more around 15sqm.

Thanks Steve it looks like I'll just concentrate on the A at the moment because I dont have a crew who really wants a spin on the 5.8. Dave would you have any photos of your setup on the A as it sounds about spot on with what I want to do.
regards

Marstrom A Class with Spinnaker

http://www.afcca.org/article.php?id_article=177

my Bimare Javelin 16 with Hooter. It is a A-cat rig, with a furling gennaker. The pole can swing to the left or right, hence the sail is sheeted outside of the double forestays, with a flat cut.

moveable pole with furler. The pole can swing till the yellow stopper. A nice feature is that the spi halyard is always under tension and hence doesn't swing around the mast.

Thanks guys ,I've seen that A on youtube and thats what got me interested did I see right that its a 10m kite on that one? Its interesting that the A has gone to so much effort to make his pole rigid and youve got the floating pole Klaus. What are the advantages of the floating pole? Is it easier to furl the kite than to have the snail or midpole snuffer? Would the end of a carbon windsurfer mast be too heavy to use as a pole?

Hi Jeff,

Some reasons for the rigid pole on the Marstrom might be:
- on a A-cat the pole is only hold in the up-direction by the spi. With the spi in the snail and wire-attached pole, it would fall down. On conventional cats, the pole is fixed at the single forstay. On the Javelin the furled spi holds the pole up all the time.
- the bows of an A-cat are initially not build to withstand the lateral loads of a spi. Marstrom avoids toed in bows with the strong support. The Javelin is designed for spis from the beginning.

The hooter on the Javelin is cut flat, so I can use it on a reach or up-wind (if it is light wind). But for these courses the hooter must be sheeted in closely. It must be within the double fore stays and the blocks must be on the trampoline. Instead of shifting the leech more to the boats centerline, the designer shifted the luff of the hooter more outboard. The effect is the same, the sail is sheeted closely, but the technical solution is much simpler.

Never sailed a boat with snuffer or snail, only with spi bag on the tramp. Compared to the bag it is more comfortable, safer and faster to set and take it down. Rigging on the beach is done much faster (faster than a jib). The draw back is, that it is always up, adding some weight above the waterline and some drag. But the negative effects on up wind courses is not that significant.
However due to the furling the sail is flat and leech and luff are quite straight. The first thing is maybe not that good for a fast down wind vmg and the sail shape put it out of the mid girth rule (under Texel or SCHRS it would be rated as a jib). And furling is not 'fool-proof'. You don't need a moveable pole for a conventional spi, but for a flat cut hooter it makes sense (and a lot of fun in light winds).

No, would be fine. I have a aluminium tube, maybe 35 or 40mm diameter. There are only moderate loads on it, if it extends the bows only by a moderate distance (1-2 feet) and the pole bridle wires are attached to the bows.

Cheers,

Klaus

Attached is a pic of the Catnip with the Hobie 18 chute. It uses a carbon mast tip, no problems so far. Note I did add 2 aluminum ski poles attached to the bows to hold the pole up, much like the Marstrom A does. Plus a small stainless steel armature with 2 struts made of 12 mm ss tubing, and 2 diamond wires.
Bends like crazy at speed in a blow- but never broke. Also never turned it over- yet. 8^)
This chute is pretty full and does runs fast & deep at speed, not looking too bad in the pic, despite its age. My home-made snail is not working yet, stowed chute in turtle on the deck. Cost so far- old lines, free sail, free mast tip- about $20. OOp- I forgot the $ Harken spin blocks of which you need 4!

Attached is a pic of the Catnip with the Hobie 18 chute, 2 aluminum ski poles attached to the bows to hold the pole up, and 2 lines from the forestay split tangs to the pole front tang. Insurance! This year the keeper nut on the starboard bow came unscrewed and the strut came off the boat just after passing the leading monohull. Acrobatics came next. I had to dowse the chute, turn upwind and then crawl out on the bow tip, balance on my stomach, lift the pole and stick its threaded end back thru the bow hole and attach a nut robbed off the boom. It worked. Not bad for 4 months after open heart surgery, eh?

Sorry wrong pic: Here is this year's Mug Race pic, mostly light to medium, some nothing.

That looks like what I've got in mind. It looks like you've got your twin forestays still and then a middle forstay is that just to hold the pole up? What size blocks are you running?
Quote
[Not bad for 4 months after open heart surgery, eh?]
Quote
Its a good advert for your doc!

regards

On the Catnip A-cat-- There is no middle forestay: The 2 struts hold up the spinnaker pole, like on the Marstrom A-cat. It can be a bit of a nuisance getting the cute and spin sheets around both forestays, but let it

fluff out

in front of the forestays it works ok. I had a

spinnaker- pigtail

made by APS, but its hiding in my garage somewhere. <img src=

alt=

/> my blocks= oddments.

Hey- If your heartbeat gets all wonky- like mine did- see a cardiologist for: 1. Halter monitoring (= EKG), 2. echocardiogram (Heart ejection fraction), 3. Thallium stress test (blockage estimation), 4. Cardiac Cath (arterial blockage quantification). It could save your (or your brother's) cookies: It happens all the time.

My thumbnail over there <- shows this same A-cat on hydrofoils flying both hulls, also she shows no signs of hull collapse despite running a good sized chute and living in Hot, Steamy Florida. Thank you Cal Fuller, who built this sweet, tough woodie in 1971.
I think the sloop-converted A-cat in Australia (2005?) broke because its single forestay pulled the hulls together too much. There doesn't seem to be that much force on my rig from the chute: one side pulls up hard, which lifts the bows & bends the foo out of the (as yet unbroken) carbon spin pole.

Every time I get in a blow and Im standing as far back as I can, my heartbeat goes all wonky! but beer on the beach fixes it <img src=

alt=

/>.
Hydrofoils <img src=

alt=

/> <img src=

alt=

/> <img src=

alt=

/> more pics please, have they made much difference to overall performance or are they just for fun?
How many knots of wind do you need to pop the boat out?
Does your cat have a big rocker?
Whats a spin pigtail?
I know I sound like a detective but you must have done a lot of trial and error to get to where you are with the boat. I wouldn't mind skipping that part if your happy to share.
regards

Not much rocker on this woodie.
For pix See wwww.fastsail.com/catcobbler

Need Small whitecaps = 12 mph wind to fly.
Yes- long story. Many free pix & Much history is available on the International Hydrofoil Society website. There is a CD available from them for $ (I was not involved) on Dave Keiper's early hydrofoil efforts- I did development work on his rigs. Belly in a boat (think Hobie 18) and weight (think Hobie 18) are enemies of successful boat-flying on foils. It's a blast. Adds to speed? The Jury is still out.
Pigtail- a 4 foot length of thin Kevlar line with a spliced eye on each end and an 18 inch dropper line in the middle to attach to your chute--- without undesirable giant knots.