Leeward Spinnaker Drop

After sailing two years on a boat that finished first in all but one race when I was on board and doing hundreds of spinnaker drops I find that the technique I learned is so unique to this skipper that I must now figure out a more standard way. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a standard way. Most people I talk to drop the spinnaker down the companway sliding hatch opening, a feature not found on my boat. The goal of this leeward drop is to get the spinnaker down the forward hatch quickly while keeping it dry. Here are the steps as best I can determine. All boats are different and all spinnaker drops are different. This page is intended to be a living document, updated as we improve our technique.

UPDATE: It wasn't that unique. It is called a "Stretch and Blow" and it is done exactly as we had done it. However, that doensn't change the fact that the sailmaker says we might rip the sail.

We are doing a leeward drop. We need to be on gybe that puts the jib on the leeward side. This takes proper prior planning.

About 3 minutes from the mark call for the drop. This time will shrink with experience.
Raise jib. Jib will be out as we will be going downwind. Make the halyard tight enough for the upwind leg.
Pit gets the main set for upwind. Outhaul on, Cunningham on.
Pit is ready to release vang if needed. If extra crew, this can be assigned.
Tighten the Leeward Twing.
If there is enough crew, put someone below in the bow (sewer) to help gather in the spinnaker.
At some point, clip the retrival line to the clew.
Bring the pole forward to about 8 inches from the forestay and snug the foreguy. Keep it high.
Square the boat up
Drop the sail.
a) Bowman: The sail may be collapsed just from being behind the jib and main. In any event, the bowman gathers as much sail as he can.
b) Pit: Feed the halyard as required to allow the sail to go below. If at any point the sail is powered up, drop about 10 feet of halyard to depower it. If this doens't work and the sail is still powered up, call for the guy trimmer to cut the guy. This will for sure depower the sail.
c)Bowman continues to gether the sail. At some point he will call for the guy to be eased.
d) Pit feeds halyard to bowman as he pulls the sail down. The goal is to keep the sail deflated but also keep the halyard from wrapping around the spreader as well as keeping the sail out of the water.
e) Sheet Trimmer. Feed the sheet as needed to get the sail below. Keep the sheet on the winch at all times. Be prepared for the sail to fill and try and pull you overboard. Your goal is to make sure no matter what goes wrong, that the sail is still attached to the boat.
Guy Trimmer: The goal is to have the guy eased after the rest of the sail is below deck. That keeps one corner of the sail secured to the boat in case something goes wrong. That said, once the sail is clearly under control and the bowman starts to pull on the foot giving tension on the guy, it needs to be eased. And as said, if the sail needs to be depowered quickly, the guy can be let run free. In order to allow this, the guy needs to be pre-coiled, figure 8 sitting below the winch so that it will play out freely. This is very important because if it gets part way out the guy jams and the sail fills, we have a big problem.
Unclip the sheets and halyard. Temporarily clip sheets together and to the lifeline. Take the halyard around the sail and clip to pulpit. Trimmer can then take in slack and keep both sheets out of the water while keeping them together so they can easily be moved to storage position later.
If someone is below, move spinnaker to forward 2/3 of v-birth so it is not under the leaking hatch. If nobody is below, bowman can do this last.
Lower pole and store it. Make sure the lazy jib sheet is above the pole.
Clip spinnaker sheets and halyard back on the pulpit if they are not already there. Trimmers take in slack and cleat them off.
Close hatch.

Method #2

The second method, and perhaps the more common one, is similar to the above method except the guy is released to depower the sail and the halyard is played out as fast as the bowman can stuff the sail below. There is no initial 10 foot drop of the halyard but it need to be played out pretty fast to keep up with the bowman.

Summary and Conclusion

After talking with the sailmaker I think we have a good plan. It is a combination or layered approach that can adapt to conditions. First is to take a retrieval line and clip it to the clew. This is what is used to pull the sail in and below given we don't have a lazy guy. Then bring the pole forward by easing the guy. Stop about 8 inches from the forestay. Bring the sheet in. The spinnaker is now behind the jib and the main and this alone should collapse it and allow the bowman to start gathering in the sail. The halyard needs to be eased as the sail is gathered in. If at any point the sail is not collapsed, the halyard needs to be dropped about 10 feet to collapse the sail then fed as before. If at any point the sail is still not collapsed, the guy needs to be let run free. No stopper knots in the guy so that if things get away, we don't have a spinnaker sailing 30 feet in front of the boat.

It is important to realize that if the guy is eased, the sheet needs to stay on the winch and only eased enough to allow the clew to go down the hatch. If the sail gets away from the bowman and the guy has been cut, we need to have the sheet attached to the boat or we will have a spinnaker flying from the top of the mast and we will wonder how to get it down.

The point is, there are three methods of collapsing the sail. First is get it behind the jib with the pole forward. Second is drop the halyard, and finally is cut the guy. Releasing the guy will collapse the sail for sure but may not be needed.

At some point in getting the sail below, the guy will need to be eased to allow the entire sail to get down. The guy trimmer needs to watch progress on the bow and listen. Likely the bowman will yell something about easing the guy at some point.

Reference

This article is pretty good. Click HERE. There are a couple of differences between what they do and what we do. On a gybe, we attach the new guy before releasing the old one. On a douse, the guy is not released until most of the sail is below deck.

Windward takedown

When we get good, we can try this. One person holds the tack out as the pole is removed and stored. The guy trimmer has to bring in the guy to keep the sail back given that the human pole is shorter than the metal one. Once the pole is stored, the sheet is cut and the bowman takes the guy and puts the sail down the hatch as the halyard is eased. If things go wrong, the sail tends to fly across the deck and down the hatch by itself. This works if we can sail dead down wind. The leeward drop works under more conditions and takes less practice.

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