[C320-list] Asymmetrical Spinnaker Anchor Points

[Louis Spitz]

I spoke with the designer of the boat, Gerry Douglas, at the Annapolis Boat show about this. He said that back when the boat was designed, asyms were not ‘out there’.
More important, he said the bow roller was not designed to take the tack load, and cautioned against it. Just passing this tidbit along, FWIW.
Lou Spitz
#195 Merry Chase
Nyack, NY

> On Apr 10, 2019, at 12:42 PM, Ray Taylor <raytaylor at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> 
> We rig our asym the same way.  Ratcheting shackles at the stern, soft shacked to the stantion base or stern cleats.  The forces are not that great as compared to a genoa.  In most cases the sheeting can be done by hand off the wench.  That 's the reason for ratcheting turning blocks. The tac is attached to the hoop over the bow roller.  I furl the sail at 10 to 15, but expect the roller could take much more.  We use a sock to furl the sail.  Could be done singled handed easily.
> Good luck,
> Ray
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On Apr 10, 2019, at 5:18 AM, Jeff Smith <jeffreyssmith at live.com> wrote:
> 
>> To all,
>> 
>> Thanks for the great information. We assumed that a soft shackle out of vectran or dyneema attached to the aft cleats would be the only way to do it without attaching new blocks. 
>> 
>> Generally we would deploy the asym two-handed, which I think is manageable with a spinnaker chute.
>> 
>> Chris - please send me details and we can discuss offline. I am in the early stages, since we just installed new sails, but we are thinking about an A0.
>> 
>> Thanks again to everyone who contributed,
>> 
>> Jeff
>> '94, #121
>> 
>> On 4/9/19, 9:13 PM, "C320-list on behalf of Chris Burti" <c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com on behalf of clburti at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>   Jeff,
>>   I rig our asymmetrical the way Scott does and it works very well shorthanded up to about 12 knots when we drop it . We have a sniffer sock so I can single hand with it. We are not using it much so it is available if you are interested. 
>> 
>>   Best Regards,
>>   Chris Burti 
>>   Commitment #867
>>   Farmville, North Carolina
>> 
>>> On Apr 9, 2019, at 4:47 PM, Scott Thompson <surprise at thompson87.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I have an asym from my previous boat that I do not use much. However in setting it up I attached blocks to the stern cleats. I bought three Harken blocks and made soft strop loops for them to attach to the stern cleats using a cow hitch. The strops do not scratch the cleats the way a metal shackle would and they are easily removed. The third block attaches to the bail on the anchor roller for the tackline. (I cleat the tackline to a bow cleat and do not try to adjust it while sailing.)
>>> 
>>> I worry a bit about the loads on the anchor roller if the wind pipes up. It's not designed for lifting or pulling the boat, after all. And that tack point is not ideal for keeping the sail drawing. Ideally the asym would attach to a bowsprit. I've thought about getting a Trogear sprit (see https://trogear.com/), which would keep the deck clean and not interfere with the opening of the anchor locker.  But until/unless I get a better spinnaker and can convince my wife that the two of us can fly it without getting into trouble I'm not going to bother with such an expensive upgrade. (I'd want to get a roller furler for the sail in that case too.)
>>> 
>>> I used to race on the Chesapeake on a J-105 and generally think that an asym spinnaker would be a good option for the Chesapeake, provided you have the hands to fly it. It's not for solo sailing in my view. The advantage of a roller furler would be during gybes, where I would roll it up and then unroll it on the new gybe rather than trying to pull the clew through inside the luff. (Outside gybes are technically possible but there is a high probability that you will end up with the lazy sheet under the boat in my experience.) You really need to sail angles with an asymmetrical, and can't sail dead downwind. Nor would you want to since the polars will be better at angles to the wind. That is, you will get downwind faster if you sail at angles to the wind. So there is a fair amount of gybing required.
>>> 
>>> Scott Thompson
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 4/9/2019 4:05 PM, Jeff Smith wrote:
>>>> To all,
>>>> 
>>>> I just installed my new sails (main and genoa) yesterday, and now it is time to think about an asymmetrical spinnaker. The very knowledgeable salesperson who helped me with the sails talked about an issue with mounting blocks on the stern for the spinnaker sheets. This leaves me to wonder, does anyone else have an asymmetrical set-up? If so, what did you use as your mounting point on the bow and on the stern? Also, for anyone on the Chesapeake Bay, any thoughts on using an asymmetrical spinnaker is also welcome. I reduced my genoa from 155% to 140%, in accordance with some discussions about balance, so I think the asym spin would help in those light winds.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>> 
>>>> Jeff
>>>> ’94, #121
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Scott Thompson
>>> Surprise, #653
>> 
>> 
>>