J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum Racing Tools and Techniques symmetrical spin vs asymmetrical spin

I had a .75 oz. chute re-cut to an A-sail and have used it racing and cruising. My wife says it's like turning on the afterburners when cruising. However, my erstwhile racing crew never seemed to get the hang of it, so we went back to JAM.
I'm able to reach and point fairly high with it, but it gets blanketed by the main above about 125-130 degrees apparent. At that point you need to wing it out to go dead downwind.
I've inquired about a masthead setup and have been told the mast probably won't take the load. One rigger I talked to thought you could fly a larger chute from a point 18"-24" above the stock spin halyard point.
Just my 2 cents.

I had a class chute cut to an asym also - they will not go very high. But I have not figured out a great way to tack it to the bow. I have a strop about a foot long that I attach to the lower turnbuckle on the forestay. It has a block attached to it that the tack line runs through. This works ok but it tends to pull back quite a bit - I think I need to shorten the strop. How do other people tack the asym down?

I use the A-sail in conjunction with a roller-furling genoa. I attach a snatch block to the regular jib tack shackle. I have a line with a shackle spliced in on the end which is run through the block and back to the cockpit to a cam cleat on the cabin top (normally for the spin downhaul). It's important to be able to adjust the tack height: down when reaching and up at higher apparent angles. As an added feature, I tie a line about 5 feet long to the stem fitting with the free end going to the release pin on the shackle at the end of the tack line. When it comes time to douse, releasing the tack line beyond 5 feet releases the tack, and you're ready to lower the halyard. We use the "letterbox" technique to haul the sail in - feed the lazy sheet under the loose main foot and over the boom. That keeps it in control.
Alternatively, you can use a sock/sleeve, but they require someone going forward to the mast to raise and lower. Would rather not have that requirement with just two hands if the winds get dicey.

So how do you keep the tack line from loading up on the roller furler drum? What do you do to jibe, the tack line will load up and pull accross the roller furler drum? This is why I figured this would not work. There is a ton of load on the tack so I figured you needed to keep it outside of the forestay triangle.

David

I bought a used melges 24 kite to play with. It is about 30 sq feet smaller than local PHRF would allow. I have not raced it, but have used it enough to tell it is slower than the regular spinns. A full size one might be a different story.

For the tack I put the pole on the deck with a pad eye at the bottom of the mast and a stainless strop bolted to the forestay chainplate. A block at the end of the pole and a long tackline to replace my downhaul. The set up worked well and if I decided to get serious about it I might go higher with the hoist.

Next year thinking a new sym .5 for PHRF for all this light Lake Michigan air.

John
358

.5 ... way to go under 10. maybe even up to 12.

To tell you the truth, I haven't jibed much, maybe once or twice.
The sail pulls the tack line forward of the foretriangle, but that's not to say it doesn't rub against the drum at some point. Since it's just my wife and me, we don't use it in winds that would cause a ton of load. I've thought about using the pole as suggested above, or getting a sprit or long anchor roller as an improvement, but haven't done anything yet. We haven't even used it this year - there was either no wind or too much wind, and in the wrong direction.