Rigging the Asymetric

[freekick100]

Can anyone tell me how you rig and fly the cruising spinnaker on the Eclipse?  Bought the boat used and the sail was in a bag, lines attached but I'm not sure all the hardware required is still on the boat.  I have two blocks mounted on the aft of the boom support but no cleats anywhere for the control lines.  Do you use the "Jib Halyard" to raise the sail or ... ?

[Craig Weis]

Sorry to be so late here it is March already.
An Eclipse, let me take a moment and look at a factory sheet.
This is a masthead sloop right?
She has a ring at the top of the mast facing the bow right?
That ring needs a very small block and pinned and clamp to attach the block to the mast.

A small [3/16?] Sta-Set halyard line. From cockpit rope clutch to the line organizer on the cabin top, to a block at the base of the mast, up through the block at the top of the mast, back down and secured to the bottom of the mast with a cleat or ring or what ever. The spinnaker halyard is now 'parked' till used. Every line has a QD , quick disconnect on it. One for the head. One for each sheet. And I purchased red/Green sheet lines for port starboard so I don't get anything twisted up when pulling the spinnaker that is still in the ASN sock out of the sail bag.

Do you have a furler? No. you'll need to douse the head sail. Bungie down. This is a bad boat to walk fwd on. No deck along the cabin. I have a Furler and need a separate halyard for the spinnaker.

Snap QD on the spinnaker at the head ring. That's going to be your spinnaker's head, and haul way. All the way to the top and secure this line in the rope clutch.

Do you have a bow pulpit? Good. Tie on a QD clip to the center of the bow pulpit ring with a piece of short stuff to the  most fwd part of the pulpit. She'll slide a bit depending on which tack shes on. No big deal. Tie the clip as close to the pulpit as possible. The spinnaker ring closest to the wind attaches here with this QD. That is going to be the TAC. With wind astern or just a little bit off, the spinnaker sheet attaches with another QD clip [This will be your CLUE] and I take my sheet all the way back to the stern hull cleat and this sheet line is run outside of every thing.

Just for convince I always have a second slack spinnaker sheet on the windward side ready for another tac. Here in lies the rub. To tac I need to go fwd and make the clue the tac and the tac the clue and the slack sheet now becomes the working sheet when coming about. A lot of work and I'm devising a way to do this from the cockpit cause I'm lazy. And I use an ASN sock to douse my spinnaker for these occasions and to flop in the sail bag for storage if dry. Clear as mudd? I don't fly the spinnaker unless I can fly it for a couple of hours without tacing. skip.

[gradycampbell]

I have run the tack line either directly to the bow cleat, or in front of/under the bow pulpit to the bow cleat. both work about the same. The "spinnaker halyard " obviously goes to the head. The sheet runs to blocks on the arch, then through Spinlocks on the arch. I am guessing that neither blocks nor Spinlocks are present in boats without spinnaker as factory option. I really like having/using spinnaker, though I have only used mine four times in four years of ownership. I even bought a new spinnaker out of lighter material and it works much better, allowing me to go much closer into the wind as well as the spinnaker not flapping nearly so much.  I also bought a 40 foot sheet that will go to both sides even though one can't really gybe the spinnaker since it is in front of the furler at the bottom, and below the furler at the top. I am thinking this may have been necessary to keep load to the mast from exceeding practical limits. I bought a sock from ATN, and put cleats on the bow rails on both sides to tie its line off to. I realize your original post was quite a ways back so you've probably already figured all this out, but thought I would post reply for whatever it is worth to you or others.

[brackish]

I was considering an Eclipse at one time and asked for some advice from Tom Ray at Gulf Island Sails.  One of the things he mentioned about the Eclipse spinnaker when describing various boats that i had interest in:

The optional
spinnaker really helps, and it's a weird little spinnaker that flies
underneath and inside of the (fractional) jib. A strange arrangement, but
definitely makes jibes easier, as you don't have to get it out and around
the jib.

If your sail is a factory option it might be helpful to contact him about it.

http://www.gisails.com

[gradycampbell]

Now that you say it, I realize that is true. It is when I run the line under the pulpit to put it as far forward as possible and more clear of the main that I cannot gybe. There is also a block that the Hutchins put on the pulpit right behind where the furler clips on that I can run the line to spinnaker tack through and to the bow cleat.