Please read the letter again. The question is not how do we fly a spinnaker
while moored, but rather is it at all possible for a bow-moored boat to be
be turned around by a spinnaker, or any other combination of sails for that
matter, so that the aft end travels upwind?


"Nav" wrote in message
...
What not transfer your anchor warp to the stern?

Cheers

Blorgad wrote:

My friend and I are having a disagreement regarding the behaviour of
sailboats on a mooring. We both have limited sailing experience,
although he
has a fair amount more than I. We were discussing running up a
spinnaker at
mooring in calm air, just to practice putting it up. We eventually
concluded that this wasn't practical, but the argument came in as to our
our
different conclusions as to why it would not be. I felt that there
would be
no point to put it up, as it would just get blown into the rigging and
not
really tell us anything and possibly get torn. He was of the opinion
that
somehow the spinnaker could push the boat to one side, fill and turn
the
boat around. Initially he said it would go right upwind of the mooring,
then reduced his claim to say that it would turn around at the point
where
it was attached to the line at the bow.

I am of the opinion that this is physically impossible and that under no
combination of sail at a mooring could the boat turn around so that the
aft
was upwind. I am of the opinion that you could get the boat to swing to
one
side or the other a bit by backing the jib, but you could still never
turn
the boat around.

I would gratefully accept as many informed opinions as possible on this
from
a sailing or physics point of view.

Fair winds,
Miles