Platu 25: Hoisting the Spinnaker.

With the last Platu Regatta still fresh in my mind, I am going to do some posting on hoisting and dropping techniques.

Its always good to be out racing; as the exposure will enables us to acquire new techniques.

Hoisting the spinnaker always seems relatively easy, and because of such view Bowman are expected to do it right and fast.

Where do we Hoist the chute from?

In Ocean Marina Yacht Club, Pattaya the Platu racer there seem to favor a hoist from the Cockpit, while I always hoist from the hatch; unless I did some improvisation on the last drop , Perhaps later I will do a post later on how Bowman improvise in different scenario.

Now back to the topic,
Putting myself in their shoes and having hoist a chute from a cockpit before, I could only see one clear advantage from hoisting from the cockpit, it put less strain on the bowman. Hoisting will be easier as there is less friction in the cockpit compares to the hatch, the chute is reachable and manageable, the Pittman will now be in charge of the drop, and there is no worries about water coming in from the hatch in choppy sea condition.

Why do i still favor a hoist from the hatch? I am going to take some of my words back, the only advantage I actually see on a cockpit hoist is that water does not comes in from the hatch. A hoist from the hatch will enables the spinnaker to fill in much faster, with the spinnaker already near the bow it will not take much time for the trimmers to brace the spin sheet and fly the chute. Strain or no strain we just have to deal with it. Flying the spin as soon as possible and getting the boat moving is our main priority. Water coming in from the hatch can be minimize by putting the spin completely inside, or a decent helm-ing .



Sean