I guess the two weeks of rain here in Fl has got me bored but......as I was looking at my spinnaker gear it dawned on me. In very light air going to windward I could rig a spare jib on the end of the pole and create a cutter rig. As I see it the only problems would be 1. the sheet leads might be at a bad angle. 2. this would move my CE well forward of my CLR and give me a lee helm. 3. is the area between the forestay and the end of the pole large enough so they do not interfere with each others flow. Still, might be a fun experiment for one of those 5knot summer days. Has anyone tried this out there?

I never saw it myself, but I heard tell of a guy in the Houston TX area who used a Yankee-cut custom-built drifter/reacher from a J-24 in lieu of a chute. I don't see why it wouldn't work; you should be able to pick up a likely sail from someplace like Sailswap or Minney's. After all, the hooter guys claim that they double-trap to weather in 5 knots.

good luck, and

sail fast

See "attachment" at left.

I had a reacher set up o

n my previous P19, but because of your reason #2 it had excessive lee helm. It was useless going upwind and difficult to steer on a reach.



Granted, this was a bastardized setup, with an old, used sail and a pole that was much, much too long.



You should be very careful going this route, as it is not easy to get the sailplan balanced. However, there have been several people who have successfully put spinnakers (with short poles) on N5.8's and P19's, basicially copying the I20-style setup. That is the route that I would recommend.



Note that you still have to ensure that your sail dimensions and sheeting angles are a good match for your boat. You will probably get much better results if you buy a new spinnaker cut for your boat's/pole's dimensions than trying to re-use an old one designed for a different boat (or even a monoslug).



Sail fast and have fun,

Alan Thompson

I20 - San Diego

I do have a spinnaker (a Worrell 455 sq') but I was thinking of using a spare 6.0 jib in 0-5 knot wind on points above the chutes ability. . Getting the luff tight enough may be another question