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Asymmetric spinnaker experiment
🕑 Added 2025-11-25 22:10:52 +0000 UTCA shot of our new (second hand) asymmetric spinnaker from the latest video. We learned a lot from flying this sail - firstly, we learned that it is definitely worth it to have a spinnaker (or 2) on board Tally Ho; it helped us gain about a knot of hull speed in light airs, but more importantly it made a perfect "bean-bag" seat on deck when not in use!
This experiment also really helped inform the geometry of Tally Ho's ideal spinnaker. The foot of this red sail is quite short compared to the length of Tally Ho's bowsprit, so I had to fly the halyard quite long to get a good sail shape and sheeting angle. If we get a custom spinnaker it will be larger and have a much longer foot.
This sail was flown from the top of the lower mast, but even then it was a bit too small for the boat. Ideally I would like to get 2 spinnakers - one to fly from the lower mast (slightly bigger that this one) and one gigantic spinnaker to fly from the top of the topmast.
Either way, an asymmetric spinnaker is much easier to handle and makes more sense for us than a symmetrical spinnaker. Tally Ho's original spinnaker was of a different kind altogether, with a long pole that fixes to the clew and holds the whole sail out to windward, while the the tack is made off near the centreline. This system was developed to comply with racing rules of the time and I'd love to recreate it one day, but it wouldn't make much sense for practical cruising.
Comments
Andrew Meyer
But what about practical racing? Fasnet after all ; )
Peter Messer
This, Leo, is why you spent the last six years rebuilding the boat.
Tony Guntz
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e99mIzWanxYyoxOHHHizeYvw
David Pearce
Comfort asea is important, 😉!
Peter Beale
If on the Fastnet race you have to go straight down wind won't you need a symmetrical spinnaker?
Mike Hughes
Go for it Leo, A spinnaker makes a heck of a difference, and is even better when there's a breeze, and if you can afford the two then, it would be a must, especially for crossing the Atlantic, and ultimately if racing.
Frank Leake
Oooh! Gigantic spinnaker! Now we're talking :-)
David Neale-Lorello
You know, I'm not a sailor and have only been sailing a handful of times (maybe a few more if you include my grandmother's 8' Hobie Cat when I was a kid), but I never get tired of seeing your beautiful work of art doing what she (and you) does best (do best?): riding the winds under blue skies over green seas! Last video, I was reminded of violin making: wooden boats and violin family instruments have a lot in common already -- they are not so much built as they are sculpted -- but I thought of a particular conversation I had with a master luthier once. I asked her if she had ever made an instrument she thought of as a masterpiece and she said, no, she hadn't, because she felt that an instrument -- she mostly made and was known for her 'cellos and violas -- could not be complete without someone to play it. An instrument that hangs on the wall isn't a musical instrument; it's a sculpture. Thus it seems to me with wooden boats: they need someone to sail them or they're just a pretty thing. With a sailor at the helm, Tally Ho becomes her full self! So beautiful and inspiring! Thank you as always for sharing your work and art.
Douglas Knapp
OK-OK, Leo, you may or may not believe me. but this was cosmic; just last week I was hallucinating on Tallyho with a spinnaker! It sounds silly, but I was imagining a spinnaker on her as I re-established the basic sailing vessel options. That billowing ! (And I really feel this word is very much a visual onomatopoeia.) Interestingly enough what inspired me was a program on the re-construction of the Victory. Started naming sailing vessels I'd learned fairly recently, but after a life-long interest and knowledge of the subject. Mostly I'm trying to master cutters and schooners. Seems as if both number of sails and rigging decisions were critical. I particularly like the history of cutters and the corresponding subjects of marine/freshwater, fishing/cargo and piloting. In fact, I am especially keen on the subject of pilot cutters competing for contracts by working the speed of their cutters. Seems closely connected to Fastnet history. Also find the idea of sailing vessels having fairly recently, maybe continuously, having continued small-scale cargo service on the rivers and canals of England.
Douglas Knapp
Hah! Memories of buffeted afternoons on the cliffs of Corona Del Mar, watching the unfurling of 50 spinnakers of a race headed from Newport to Dana Point or San Diego. Lovely, colorful things! BTW: Not a sailor, but always fascinated with your sail work, rigging and sailing! Good on you all, smooth sailing, and would that I could meet you in Panama or Cartagena. Neither of us can manage it, most likely, but I'm still conniving on how to intercept the team at some other point.
Beau Vrolyk
Leo, as you move forward with this, you'll want to explore an ATN Snuffer. Amongst all the various ways to manage a spinnaker, this is the best for cruising (in my opinion). The simple explanation is that there is a funnel shaped thing of fiberglass with a cloth tube that holds the spinnaker. It can make life MUCH easier.
