[C320-list] Afterguys

[Scott Thompson]

I don't use a spinnaker at all on my 320 so I might be missing 
something. But in younger days (back in the 1970s and 80s) I did a lot 
of racing on masthead boats with full symmetrical spinnakers, separate 
sheets and guys, extra winches and crew to handle those, etc. Based on 
that experience I would say that there were two advantages to using 
separate guys and a lot of disadvantages. The advantages were (1) you 
didn't need twings (tweaks?), and (2) you could do a dip-pole gybe, 
which was easier on a big boat than an end-for-end. The disadvantages 
were the extra string and blocks and winches and crew needed. Also that 
you had a lazy guy weighing down the clew of the spinnaker (a big 
disadvantage in light air). I don't think there was any real advantage 
of the lazy-guy setup regarding loads. After all, once powered up you 
were still only loading one line on each side of the boat. Why do you 
think that afterguys would help with loads in a big wind? Modern 
low-stretch lines certainly can bear the loads, and the required turning 
blocks would be no different than what you have now. But maybe I'm not 
understanding what you have in mind.

Scott Thompson

On 4/7/2019 8:23 PM, Denny Browne wrote:
> Anybody use dedicated afterguys for a symmetrical spinnaker? I’ve been using a single set of sheets, with tweaked and the lazy sheet becoming the afterguy, but I’m a little concerned about loads in big wind. Any opinions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Denny Browne
> A Cappella #935
> Denny.Browne at me.com
> Redondo Beach, CA
> Sent from my iPhone