"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:28:03 -0500, cavelamb
wrote:

With the tack constrained near the nose, going larger downwind
could get messy...

It's possible to float a symetrical spinnaker out in front of the boat
on a pair of light sheets with no pole at all but it takes constant
adjustment to keep it flying properly and there is serious risk of
getting a bad wrap around the headstay. You really need a pole to do
it properly. However, heading up to about 110 or 120 degrees of
apparent wind you can easily fly a symetrical chute from a tack
penant, or in light wind from a pennant attached to the forward point
of the bow pulpit. There is surprisingly little force on the pulpit
unless apparent wind speed goes over 12 kts or so, and it is more
efficient to have it tacked further forward than the headstay.


This is also true in wing-on-wing situations with a regular jib or jenny.
There's little force on the jib if it's either full or collapsed, but when
the wind picks up, you can get a fairly hefty shock load on the sheet and it
can wrap the headstay if it's out in front of the stay and collapses.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com