Regatta yacht "Britannia"

Pete, The sail that you are questioning would be a spinnaker. These sails are set flying and are difficult to handle. There is always the risk of the sail getting dropped in the water and the boat sailing over it. To overcome this problem at least when hoisting the sail it was “set in stops.” The long sausage that you show being handled by the crew is the sail with the stops tied around it. After being hoisted the sheet and guy would be used to spread the sail and the stops would (hopefully) break.

I sailed as crew on two offshore racing (36-40ft) boats) in the 1990’s. By that time spinnakers were not set in stops. Instead the sail was packed below decks into a canvas box with the head, tack, and clew sticking out through slits. The foredeck crew attached the halyard, sheet, and guy each time the sail was hoisted. There was often some debate about which side the pole would be on because the spinnaker had to be ready to hoist when we rounded the leeward mark.

I have no experience handling one of the relatively new asymmetrical spinnakers.

Roger
 
Well, that goes a long way to clear up the mystery (ies) concerning depicting this sail and boom. I'm glad I wasn't too far off the mark. There are modelers here that are far mor fastidious than I am in research and accurate depictions of their subjects. I just get caught up in the romance, need to satisfy the urge to make a three-dimensional work of art, whack away at my subject, get as close as I can, declare victory and move on. It is only later I learn how far behind the curve I may have been. There will always be room to improve whatever I come up with, but at some point, I always have another itch to scratch. I see all my models more as works of art than documents.;)
I am grateful for the elucidation by an experienced sailor!Thumbsup:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top