Symetric Spinnaker

Quite a few Fireballs seem to have chutes..........well mine does!

By the way go for the oppertunity cos its quite a speedy boart once its on the plane on a 3 sail reach

yeah learn to gybe. Very important if you dont want to go swimming, also you can gain masses. I wouldnt necesseraly agree about the dead down wind thing, but that is probably more class dependant.

Tips:

• Always play the kite. Dont keep it still, let the sheet out untill the front of the kite curls then pull it back in just a little bit so that it isnt breaking but just on the edge, Keep adjusting it to make sure the it is always at its optimum.
• Pole height - let the sail out till it curls and watch where on the kite this happens first, If it happens in the middle third then the pole it the right height.  Higher than this it is too high, lower too low.
• If the kite Collapses from the windward edge it needs to be pulled in a bit (a short sharp tug is the best in my experience this makes the kite fil quicker than pulling it backwards slowly)
• If it Collapses from the middle of the kite then you need to let it out more as the main is sheilding the kite from the wind and it wont fill, (so if the whole of the kite goes at the same time)

Other things to look at are should you take the sheet over or under the main sheet, (depends upon the wind and point of sailing),
Where you should sit - some helms like their crews sitting on the leeward side (boat is ballenced well but crew cant always see kite) and soem allow the crew to sit on windward deck, (crew can se kite but helm cant see everything) - only applicable in light to med. winds.

Hope that this is helpfull. Admitidly this is all based upon the classes I have sailed and I havent sailed a Fireball but looking at the kite at the weekend it does seem a smilar cut so shourl behave the same. (Oh just realised the fireball is trapeze so the bit about where to sit may be a bit weird)