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Submitted on September 15, 2006 by John Draeger

Question: When doing outside jibes on a Jeanneau 40, we hold our wind angle, pull the clew around the headstay and jibe immediately to the new wind angle. The question is: how much should the sheet be eased in advance of the jibe? Should it be completely dropped and pulled off the winch or should it be more gradual? Does a complete release mean risking the sheet dropping under the boat? Should the gennaker flag way forward before the trimmer starts pulling the clew around? Should the driver help the sheet trimmer get the clew around by steering down some or should he hold course (to prevent the gennaker from blowing through the foretriangle) until the trimmer gets the clew around the forestay? Is there a website with a good description or video of all of this? After years of symmetric spinnakers, I thought asymmetrics would be a snap. It seems there are a hundred mistakes to make before one finishes learning.

Thanks,
JD

Answer: Dear John -

It appears you have the mechanics down for the crew, so hopefully my explanation here will encompass all your concerns. All sailors - from the complete novice to the highest professional - never stop learning, and often we learn best from our own mistakes.

Asymmetric spinnakers are in my opinion easier to fly with (usually) less SNAFU’s. Practice, practice, practice. (in light to med air is always best). And you will be able to “snap” your jibes quicker and with less effort than before.

As soon as you start turning the boat down, the sheet should be eased (let off the winch) completely. Let the sail fly out in front of the boat and as you turn the boat under the sail, to the new heading, the lazy sheet should be overhauled as quickly as possible. If you turn too fast, the sail will collapse into the foretriangle, and if you turn too slow, it makes it difficult for the trimmers to bring the sail around. Your turn should be slow/fast enough to allow the clew to get in front of the headstay before bringing it around. The heavier the breeze the farther out the clew will go.

Once the clew is around, I always find it best to turn the boat up a bit more than your new course should be. This allows the sail to fill (pop) with air on the new angle quicker. Once this happens, the trimmer should call that the kite is full and you (the driver) should do a “big” bear off to your proper course. And the trimmer should then do a “big” ease (5-10 feet on the sheet). The stronger the breeze the less you will have to head up out of the jibe and less you will bear off. A word of caution, be careful in strong breeze, too much of a “pop” and not enough ease may cause your sail to fail during the bear away.

Also,one thing that can smooth the progress of the sail coming around clean is to have someone at the shrouds pulling the lazy sheet around as you are tuning the boat and then running it aft, and pulling the clew down, to straighten the leech.

Jibing like this always runs the risk of the sheet falling under the boat. A couple of ways to prevent this are:

Have a crew member handle the “strong” sheet as it runs forward, and as soon as the sail (pops) on the opposite jibe as I mentioned above, take the slack out of the new “lazy” sheet and hang it over the bow pulpit.

Another preventive measure for this is the have your local sailmaker install what we call a “gybulator” on the tack of the sail. This is a firm piece of web about 6 inches long that sticks up at about 45 degrees from the luff of the sail, about 2-3 feet up from the tack. As the lazy sheet falls down the luff, it is captured in the V created by this web. Pretty cool.

Don’t forget that once your jibe is complete make sure all your lines are taken up and flaked and ready to run free for the next one. Nothing can stop a perfect jibe faster than a tangled sheet.

I hope this answered your questions. Good Luck and hope to see you on the water!

BTW: North U. has some great video of how to do this.

Regards,
Ron LaNeve
(ron@sales.northsails.com)

North Sails ~ New Jersey

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