Spinnaker Peel Advice

[Will O'Haver]

Gonna go out and practice some kite peels on our Bene 36.7, but I'm not totally sure where to start. From my understanding, you bring the pole forward and down, hook the clew of the new sail onto the guy using one of those "handcuff" shackles. (no, not the pink fluffy ones.) Hoist the new sail, though I'm confused how to ensure stuff isn't crossed up top, the boat has two fractional spin hal's. Spike the old sail, and letter box it. How off am I? Any tips or tricks? Racing with a crew of 8-9. Sending someone to the end of the pole is not an option. Thanks! 

 

[ropetrick]

The handcuffs go on the sail that will be doused. Spike open the current guy and attach new kite clew to guy schackle that you just opened.

Hoist new kite and when trimmed tell the wienies to get ready and then spike the handcuff at the old kite.

Remove the handcuffs at the end of the pole and swagger back to the rail.

 

[slug zitski]

Sounds about right 

practice a few in light wind on a broad reach  and everything will make sense 

Close reaching and heavy air are a challenge … practice first 
 

 

[slug zitski]

And keep your eyes open for a long arm crew … makes things go much faster 

Those long arms are hard to find these days… ask at the pub 

 

[P_Wop]

On a boat that size, I still like the old peeling strop.  An eight-foot length of spectra with eyesplices and snapshackles both ends.  The top splice also includes an SS ring and has a 12" length of 1" webbing spliced to it, finished with a third snapshackle.

Rig the strop to the jib tack point, put the webbing strop round the headfoil and snap the end to the SS ring.  Rig the new kite tack to the other snapshackle and set the kite.  The webbing strop will ride up the headfoil to just above head height.  The new kite will fly nicely, with its tack close to the headstay.

Then ease the aftguy forward, spike off the old kite, and "politely" ask for two more feet of aftguy ease to enable you to snap the aftguy on the new kite tack.

Then call to pull the aftguy back while spiking the shackle on the strop.

Unrig the strop, wander aft and demand a beer.

 

[slug zitski]

On a boat that size, I still like the old peeling strop.  An eight-foot length of spectra with eyesplices and snapshackles both ends.  The top splice also includes an SS ring and has a 12" length of 1" webbing spliced to it, finished with a third snapshackle.

Rig the strop to the jib tack point, put the webbing strop round the headfoil and snap the end to the SS ring.  Rig the new kite tack to the other snapshackle and set the kite.  The webbing strop will ride up the headfoil to just above head height.  The new kite will fly nicely, with its tack close to the headstay.

Then ease the aftguy forward, spike off the old kite, and "politely" ask for two more feet of aftguy ease to enable you to snap the aftguy on the new kite tack.

Then call to pull the aftguy back while spiking the shackle on the strop.

Unrig the strop, wander aft and demand a beer.

That also works fine 

 

[duncan (the other one)]

re: crossing halyards.. just make sure your bowman keeps track.

You'll generally find you can't do a clean outside hoist - it usually ends in a mess; so the new kite goes up inside, and the old halyard will be outside once dropped. 

That may mean it is now crossed - either deal with it immediately (run it around the outside of the new kite - which is not as easy as it sounds), or leave it till a gybe (usually easier to run outside front to back rather than aft forward) or the kite comes down. 

This is where the bowman needs to be on the ball - he'll remember what's what and sort it out when the time comes, or brief the next watch as required.

Boat that size, bowman should be able to stand on the pulpit and hook up the cuffs and new clew when the pole comes fwd. No need to lower it much, if at all.

You can use a strop to the bow - but the kite won't stay set as nicely.

No-one has yet mentioned what to do with the sheets: You seem to be running sheets and braces, so use the lazy brace for the new kite's sheet on the hoist (this obviously limits how shy you can be running at the time), and put it all back together when the old kite is down.

1. new kite on leeward bow rail

2. hook up halyard (inside old kite) and lazy brace as sheet (also inside) to new kite

3. bowman pulls new clew to bow, stands on pulpit with cuffs and clew in hand, pole goes forward, bowman connects old clew to pole (or brace ring) with cuffs, fires brace (old kite now held with the cuffs) and hooks new clew to brace

4. hoist new kite 

5. bowman fires cuffs - best to fire on the old clew side (not the pole side), so you don't have stainless hardware flogging about - old kite pulled down, remove cuffs.

6. trim the pole

7. re-set kite sheet and lazy brace

8. Bowman saunters back and basks in the admiration of her fellow crew

You can get away with one snap shackle on your cuffs - just have a long loop on it and cow-hitch to the pole/brace ring

 

[Tax Man]

For a boat that size just go bare headed.  Spike and letterbox the old sail, put the strings on the new one, bear off and hoist.  Neat, clean and done.

Peels look cool but the extra time having your bowman hanging out in the worst place to have weight eats into the benefits even if done perfect.  Screw something up or cross the halyards and you are losing on the deal.

You still want to go out and practice the routine, there is speed in repetition.

 

[sailman]

If you have a mast puller shackle on the bow use that for the new spinnaker tack (that will get your new tack above the pulpit, depending on how long that strop is).  Hoist the new spinnaker, bring the old spinnaker guy forward and spike it.  Now bring that guy down and clip to the new spinnaker tack and unclip the mast puller.  Guy trimmer then winds back on the new sail while you are collecting the old spinnaker.

 

[Bump-n-Grind]

I have never been a fan of peels. have practiced those things till we were blue in the face and in a practice setting we could do it.. but out on a race course they never seemed to go well.... I quit doin them and have gone to bareheaded changes for both kites and jibs... 

the time lost whilst only under one sail has never been as painful as trying to unfuck a blown peel.....

YMMV

 

[ropetrick]

We like to do bareheaded changes at night when the other boats can't see you.

 

[bgytr]

I have never been a fan of peels. have practiced those things till we were blue in the face and in a practice setting we could do it.. but out on a race course they never seemed to go well.... I quit doin them and have gone to bareheaded changes for both kites and jibs... 

the time lost whilst only under one sail has never been as painful as trying to unfuck a blown peel.....

YMMV

Yes.

Bareheaded is the way to go because the risk/reward factor.  If you get the new kite ready and in place, it is less than a minute from releasing the old kite to having the new kite up and trimmed.  Compare that with the likelihood of some mess up that ends up taking 20 minutes to sort out, ripping a sail, and hoisting a guy up the rig to clear halyards with the risk of injury.

We won fleet in ChiMac doing all barehead spin changes.  I disagree about headsail changes though, those are rudimentary to do with luff grooves, no need to go bareheaded imo.

 

[Bump-n-Grind]

.  I disagree about headsail changes though, those are rudimentary to do with luff grooves, no need to go bareheaded imo.

for us, it would depend on the crew I had aboard, if we were all spun up and I knew that all those involved in the mechanics of the change were on the same page, then yes. but if there was even an ounce of confusion at the beginning of the evolution ... bareheaded... 

my other consideration with headsails is change from what to what.. 1 to 3... ok.. 3 to 1 ok..

light 1 to heavy 1 or vice versa.. bareheaded... there was too much friction between the sails for that evolution to go smoothly very often..

masthead rig with 155 genoa .. that's a lot of surface area contact...

 

[slug zitski]

Yes.

Bareheaded is the way to go because the risk/reward factor.  If you get the new kite ready and in place, it is less than a minute from releasing the old kite to having the new kite up and trimmed.  Compare that with the likelihood of some mess up that ends up taking 20 minutes to sort out, ripping a sail, and hoisting a guy up the rig to clear halyards with the risk of injury.

We won fleet in ChiMac doing all barehead spin changes.  I disagree about headsail changes though, those are rudimentary to do with luff grooves, no need to go bareheaded imo.

Yup 

many times it’s best 

you win by making the fewest mistakes 

but the peel is a valuable  technique to learn . Particularly light air . .5 oz stuff

 

[axolotl]

Sad to learn that 'spin peels are now an anachronism.  It's the most impressive sail transition spectators can witness.  As bowman I did dozens of them in my career (handcuff technique) and can't recall a clusterfuckup (except crossed halyards when several in a row are done ).  It does require topnotch crew work and a good helmsman.  A tip is if it's windy you don't have to steer CMG during the entire transition;  for example when reaching steer down during the critical handcuff&spike event to blanket the kites(s) a bit with the main.  Also you don't need double snap shackle handcuffs, a single Tylaska on a Spectra loop long enough to luggage tag to the pole suffices.

Peel

 

[some dude]

On a boat that size, I still like the old peeling strop.  An eight-foot length of spectra with eyesplices and snapshackles both ends.  The top splice also includes an SS ring and has a 12" length of 1" webbing spliced to it, finished with a third snapshackle.

Rig the strop to the jib tack point, put the webbing strop round the headfoil and snap the end to the SS ring.  Rig the new kite tack to the other snapshackle and set the kite.  The webbing strop will ride up the headfoil to just above head height.  The new kite will fly nicely, with its tack close to the headstay.

Then ease the aftguy forward, spike off the old kite, and "politely" ask for two more feet of aftguy ease to enable you to snap the aftguy on the new kite tack.

Then call to pull the aftguy back while spiking the shackle on the strop.

Unrig the strop, wander aft and demand a beer.

This for distance.  Otherwise wait for the 2nd beat. Sewer guy gets to eat unlimited cookies while below. 

 

[bgytr]

for us, it would depend on the crew I had aboard, if we were all spun up and I knew that all those involved in the mechanics of the change were on the same page, then yes. but if there was even an ounce of confusion at the beginning of the evolution ... bareheaded... 

my other consideration with headsails is change from what to what.. 1 to 3... ok.. 3 to 1 ok..

light 1 to heavy 1 or vice versa.. bareheaded... there was too much friction between the sails for that evolution to go smoothly very often..

masthead rig with 155 genoa .. that's a lot of surface area contact...

Ya true on the headsail friction for the big jibs, we had non overlapping headsails, much easier.

 

[P_Wop]

Ya true on the headsail friction for the big jibs, we had non overlapping headsails, much easier.

I remember seeing a rather special jib change in the '81 Admiral's Cup.  We watched a masthead 50 footer laboriously grinding the no.2 up the outside of the heavy no.1, then they tacked, and with immense struggles hauled the heavy no.1 down the outside of the 2.  We called it an "Irish tack-change."

Don't do that.