Definition of a spinaker

How would you define a spinaker?

Supposing someone put a 21sqm sail on the front of a Cherub which could go be used to beat?

Spinnakers have an unstable luff.....thats why they collapse on too tight a reach and why they won't fly at all upwind.

......Think about it....main's have the mast to support the luff and the jib/genoa has a wire in the luff to add support.

If you stuck a wire in the luff of a kite and put tension in the wire(like you would on the jib/genoa)...it would probably sail upwind!

........i think !!!!!!

Although I think this is open to discussion?

Kasey

RRS 50.4

"The difference between a headsail and a spinnaker is that the mid-girth of a headsail, measured from the mid-points of its luff and leech, does not exceed 50% of the length of its foot, and no other intermediate girth exceeds a percentage similarly proportional to its distance from the head of the sail. A sail tacked down behind the foremost mast is not a headsail."

 

 

 

 

my knackered spinnaker wont fill if u try to sail it deep and the only way to fill it is to keep heading and we got very close to beating with it. Very strange

50.4 doesn't apply to Cherubs: its specifically excluded in the class rules.

Back in the 60s the class widely used little triangular kites with wire luffs (set from poles). You whammed down on the pole and it would carry well above a true beam reach. They were lousy on broader reaches though, and they disappeared as Olympic courses became widespread and you never sailed beam reaches anymore.

Now you could create a triangular asymmettric that would carry upwind. It would be a bit undersize probably. You'd probably have to relocate the daggerboard forward of the mast in order to make the boat balance. Then you'd find that the extra speed would bring the apparent wind well back so you'd have to be sailing very low upwind, so wouldn't gain as much as you'd think. Then you'd discover that your performance offwind sucked because the kite only worked well hard on the wind and you're only allowed one kite on board under Cherub rules.

Taut luff asymmettric kites were common on 18s and things before the 80s, maybe before 70s. The loose luff modern asymmettric, as conceived by Andrew Buckland and popularised by Julian Bethwaite has pretty much made them existinct.
So you can try it, but I doubt it will be a race winner 95% of the time: it would certainly be prettty poor on windward/leewards.


Here's a celebrated pic of a wire luff kite on a 60s Cherub.


Edited by JimC