Has anyone set a spinnaker on a BCC? If yes, what is the size in terms of luff, foot and leech length?
My sail plan lists the following dimension for a spinnaker:
Luff 39’10"
Foot 32’
Leech 39’10"
This seems rather large, especially the foot measurement.
Rod
BCC IDUNA
Hi Rod:
The spinnaker area isn’t mentioned on the specifications page of the BCC, I seem to recall when I was at SLM gathering data for the website that it was not available.
However, the size you quote doesn’t look odd. Consider that the foot is curved, so that, from sheet to sheet, the spread would be around 18 feet.
Regards
John
John:
Thanks, I need to rethink light air sails before I make decide if I really want a spinnaker.
Rod
Somehow, for a cruiser, a spinnaker seems way too much trouble, particularly for a single hander. A light air genoa and a pole is possible a simpler solution.
It’s those darned North and South winds we have to put up with! It’s incredible on the bay - you either have a headwind, or a dead run, wherever you go!
Rod and all,
Itchen has a very nice asymetrical spinnaker with snuffer which came
as part of her sail inventory. I rigged a halyard plus an outhaul to
get the tack out to the end of the bowsprit, thinking it would be
handy for light air downwind work. Carried it all the way down to the
Abacos and back last year and never set it once. Never felt the need
for the extra bit of speed and most of the time conditions weren’t
right for it anyway. Mostly saw wind on the nose or tight reach
lumpy-sea motor sailing or 15 - 20 knot beam or broad reaches that
gave us hull speed with jib alone or jib plus 2nd reef main. That
included one 70 mile ten hour run in the ICW singlehanded without
engine – spinnaker would have been out of the question but roller
furling jib was no hassle. That was statute miles, not NM. The same
has been true thus far this year - we left the Cheapeake two weeks
before Xmas and did ICW - with a layover in Oriental - to Cape Fear
and then went offshore to Fort Pierce and then St. Lucie -Okeechobee
to Fort Myers. Did not have one single moment when a spinnaker would
have been suitable and it was nice to have the extra space back in the
quarterberth-garage. The first mate finally got off my case re
spinnaker versus space.
99% of our sailing is either single or double-handed often at night
and the extra hassle ( and risk) of rigging the spinnaker has just
never seemed worth it at the moment. For me one of the pleasures of
cruising in a BCC has been slipping back into cruising mode without
the constant need to get the last tenth of a knot of extra speed. I’ve
done a lot of spinnaker work while racing and cruising in other boats
but it’s a different game, a lot of fun but not a high priority at the
moment. If we do some Chesapeake cruising or go up the coast to Maine
next summer we’ll put the spinnaker back on board and probably find a
use for it.
If I were starting from scratch with a new sail inventory, after the
standard jib, stays’l and main combo, I would add first a storm
trysail and next a big overlapping light air reacher. And a cunningham
for the main. If I already owned an asymetrical I might think twice
about the reacher. But, it really comes down to how and where the
boat is actually used. Just my $0.02, everyone’s situation will
probably be different. Well be back on board Itchen next week and
probably see nothing but light air reaches and wish we had the
spinnaker. Unlikely, just joking.
Regards, Scott
S/V Itchen (BCC 73)
On 3/8/06, BCC Forums bccforums@samlmorse.com wrote: