Symmetric v Assymmeric Spinnakers

Originally posted by Peaky If the ratio is less than 0.53, he claims that in sub-planing winds the boat will run square quicker

I have always felt that FB was being over simplistic about that, and I wish I had his level of dedication and committment to do the research... Manfred Currys and Frank Bethwaites are very rare beasts though, and I hope I'm at least smart enough to know I'm not that smart or committed.

But even if FB's polars are right in steady wind speed and direction, he of all people demonstrated that there is no such thing, and all it takes is getting the right side of some shifts, and exploiting the direction changes in the gust fronts, and the skilled crew with the kite is way ahead (and the unskilled one a mile behind!).

Its a lesson I learned the hard way at a light airs open meeting at Llangorse in 1989 or 90... There will be occasions where people who just sit in the middle of the boat with the jib poled out come out ahead of those who have the kite up and hunt the shifts and the gusts, but they don't seem to be that many, and in any case who's having more fun?

Originally posted by iGRF Somebody tell me, why keep these anachronisms going rather than work a bit harder on developing Assyms to sail dead downwind if need be, a la Alto? There has to be something else I'm missing, care to share it with me?

Yep, your missing something....I don't think anyone has developed an assy that sails efficiently dead down wind.

A decent symm will run well and reaches reasonably well  (not as tight as an assy granted)

A wing wang assy runs badly and reaches well.

Anyway, my argument in the hornet thread was qualified with the statement "assys in small slow boats are the wrong tool for the job" which narrows my it down IMO.

There's a place for both kites it's just that in recent years sailors have let fashion and ease of use dictate instead of reason..........Oh, and partisan attitudes have played their part of course.

Edited by transient - 13 Aug 13 at 11:32am

Originally posted by transient "assys in small slow boats are the wrong tool for the job"

But I submit that at some stage in the equation a spinnaker at all is an expensive and complex piece of kit of marginal benefit. If you are genuinely running square it can make little difference to performance because every half knot of speed is a half knot less apparent wind. At what point is it more sensible to take the N12/Icon route and just have a dangly pole, which provides nearly as much interest for the crew and costs a shed load less money?

Originally posted by JimC One might ask why don't boards have spinnakers and so on so they can run deep [grin].

Very difficult to pump (air row) a kite which is basically the boards action of choice if the wind doesn't deliver and at planing wind speeds the stability of a sail built of kite cloth just wouldn't stack up, the leading edge would collapse at the speeds they already attain was my opinion.

I think it would be helpful to generally banish the 'dead running' from this discussion.