OzOne wrote:
I've actually used a spinnaker upwind to good effect.

Yep. A few times we've been in races where the spinnakers came out on
upwind legs... or the wind shifted close to 180...


A very flat cut kite and sheeted by hand before it passed thru blocks.
Obviously very light conditions and flat flat water.
The sail is pulled pretty tight along the foot and the leech opened
and closed by raising and lowering your hand to keep the sail full.

Yes you can carry the sail amazingly high if the leach is pulled down
but it hurts the drive. I kept our spin sheet draped over top of the aft
end of the boom to keep this from happening much of the time.

A collapse is disastrous because you need to pull well away to refill.

Very true... which is why you ahve to be very careful not to get blanketed.

One time we were caught in a big wind shift turning a run into a beat...
we were out on the corner and tight reaching in with great speed, sure
to win but the damn wind kept heading us. We crossed ahead of almost
everybody and then tried to tack with the spinnaker still up... we were
only a few yards from the mark I thought we could save time if we could
get around it with the chute still up... guess again! Went from 2nd to
about 32nd....

I think the race my wife will remember forever is one at Savannah, where
we had a very tight reach down the river and went from jib to spinnaker
& back again about 30 times... we also went from way down in the fleet
to 3rd or so.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King