Basic Spinnaker Tasks

Trim

• Bowman - Sits on the rail mostly but may need to adjust the position of the pole on the mast. The pole should be parallel with the water but this is not as critical as other adjustments and can be left for last.
• Guy trimmer - Watches the masthead fly or a bit of yarn tied to the center of the pole. He needs to constantly move the pole back by taking in on the spinnaker guy (it is a sheet until it goes through the pole, then it becomes a guy). The pole cannot go back unless the foreguy is eased and letting it go forward without the pitman taking in on the guy leaves the pole uncontrolled. Therefore, the guy trimmer and the pitman need to communicate constantly. The guy trimmer calls out "pole back" or "pole forward" and the pitman repeats the commands when he is ready. The goal is to keep the pole perpendicular to the wind.
• Pitman - Works foreguy in reaction to the commands of the guy trimmer as discussed above. He is also responsible for the pole height by adjusting the topping lift and foreguy together. A rough rule of thumb is that the tack should be at the same height as the clew. The tack is what was a clew until the sheet became a guy by being run through the pole jaw. The clew will seek its own height and the tack can then be adjusted to match. The pitman also controls the vang. If the boat starts to get out of control and round up, the first thing to do is release the vang. This will allow the boom to rise and dump some wind giving some more control to the boat. Normally you want the vang on downwind to give more sail area to the wind. The pitman also adjusts the outhaul and cunningham. All adjustments to thses should be made downwind either after the rounding at the start of the run or just before the rounding at the end of the run.
• Sheet trimmer - keeps spinnaker on edge of luffing. This is done by letting the sheet out until the sail luffs and then pulling it in until the sail quits luffing. Then repeat these two steps until the spinnaker is doused. The sheet trimmer stands forward near the shrouds on the side of the boat with the pole as shown in this short video.
  
• Mainsheet trimmer - As the angle to the wind changes, adjusts the main. The main job of the mainsheet trimmer when sailing with a spinnaker comes when it is time to gybe.
• Helmsman - steers the boat, calls gybes, doesn't gybe accidentally.