In preparation for Virago's participation in the 2009 Baja Ha Ha, we have added an asymmetrical spinnaker and ATN sock to our sail inventory. We purchased the sail from Doyle and Marj used their online application to design a sail that projected "Virago". Since Marj and I have no experience with asyms we sought the advice of Roger Frizelle on how to rig the control lines. A few weeks ago Paul, Marj, Jim Golden, Dick Einsphar, and Loise Einsphar set sail for the first hoist.
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| Jim | Dick & Paul | Dick & Loise |
Dick was the only member of the crew with previous spinnaker experience so he led the preparation. We made several mistakes in rigging the lines, but recognized them before we actually hoisted the sail. Once the lines were deemed ready we hoisted the sail in its sock in about 10 knots of apparent wind. My only real surprise was that the foot of the sail protruding beneath the sock caught enough wind to push up the sock and unfurl the sail. Now I realize that the sock downhaul needs to be secured to prevent accidental unfurling of the sail. We practiced partially raising the sock and dousing the sail several times to get the hang of it.
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| Preparing | Hoisting | Unfurling |
With preparations made, we released the sock downhaul. The wind tried to unfurl the asym much as you might open a zipper by pulling the two sides apart. Dick had advised us to keep the active sheet taut and we saw that ignoring that advice kept the sock from fully rising. When we tightened the sheet--up went the sock and out went the sail in its full glory. We had furled the mainsail and were pleased to see that sans its blanketing affect the asym stayed full all the way down to 180 degrees off the wind. We had a perfect sail down the Estuary maintaining six knots of boat speed even as the wind dropped to less than ten knots.
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