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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 25 Specific Forum

flying the asym chute

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awetmore
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1144 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/18/2013 : 09:49:27

The crew that I race with on my old C-25 has finally figured out how to keep the asymmetrical spinnaker rigged and ready to fly. Previously we were always getting sheets tangled up and had to re-rig things on the fly, which killed us in quickly deploying the chute.

We're using a North Sails Cruising Gennaker, which is rigged with a halyard, tack line, and two sheets. Most asym's are rigged about the same way.

Here are the instructions that we've written up for the boat. Maybe someone else will find them to be useful:

Rigging
<ul>
<li>Put the spinnaker in its bag on the dinette area or galley area below decks.</li>
<li>Bring the spinnaker halyard around behind the spreaders and then below into the cabin. You can tie it off to the pop-top strut.</li>
<li>Run the spinnaker sheets up from inside the cabin, outside of everything (forestay, jib sheets, etc). They will run over the jib sheets, but won't get in the way.</li>
<li>Run the spinnaker tack line back along the center of the bow pulpit, around the shrouds on the same size as the spinnaker, and down into the cabin and attach to the spinnaker tack.</li>
<li>Now the spinnaker is rigged, but you can sail with the jib.</li>
</ul>

Hoisting
<ul>
<li>Shackle the spinnaker to the spinnaker halyard.</li>
<li>Raise the spinnaker in sock.</li>
<li>Drop the jib (can do this before raising the spinnaker to be safe).</li>
<li>Carry the spinnaker tack forward while someone pulls slack out of the tackline. Hank onto the forestay above the genoa. The genoa halyard can stay shackled, the spinnaker will hold the genoa down.</li>
<li>Raise the sock to fly the spinnaker.</li>
</ul>

Notes
<ul>
<li>Prep the spinnaker on the side it will be deployed and preferably retrieve it on the same side.</li>
<li>Re-rig from scratch if dropped on opposite side from launch. The spinnaker can stay below, but re-route the sheets, tack, and halyard.</li>
</ul>

Here are a couple of photos from our practice yesterday before the Goose Bumps race.

During the finish we also learned just how far upwind you can run it. We were in a close reach with it sheeted close in. The sail is pretty unstable here (a slight wind shift causes big problems) and we made a lot of leeway, but it worked better than we expected. We still had to drop it at the last second to take and make the line.

Hopefully someone else finds this useful. This sail has been a lot of fun, especially since it wasn't very expensive. I actually just found a matching one that is the right size for my Pearson and ordered it. Keep an eye out for these on eBay and at used sail dealers, they are pretty common and not too expensive.

Alex W
Seattle, WA
Express 37 "re-Quest"
previously owned 1984 Catalina 25 "Lutra"

Edited by - awetmore on 02/18/2013 09:51:10

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9081 Posts

Response Posted - 02/18/2013 : 10:32:21

Sounds like a good system. Even Americas Cup races have been lost due to a single hoist or douse of a chute.

Edited by - on

awetmore
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1144 Posts

Response Posted - 02/23/2013 : 19:36:37

I got a sister sail for my Pearson, it arrived yesterday and we flew it for the first time today:

It is 36' luff, 550 sqft instead of 30' luff and 400sqft on the Catalina 25.

These are both North Sails Direct (aka Cruising Direct) Cruising Gennakers. They fly nicely from a beam reach (a bit into a close reach) down to maybe 160 degrees (not quite DDW). I like 'em, and they aren't too expensive (especially used) and the socks work really well.

Edited by - awetmore on 02/23/2013 19:37:45

cshaw
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
460 Posts

Response Posted - 02/24/2013 : 17:30:14

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by awetmore
 I got a sister sail for my Pearson, it arrived yesterday and we flew it for the first time today:

It is 36' luff, 550 sqft instead of 30' luff and 400sqft on the Catalina 25.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

VERY nice looking sail!!!! Congrats!

Chuck