The Admiral and I have started planning for a trip north next year. We prefer to sail rather than motor, but the East Coast likes a bit of breeze to get her going. The Admiral is not ever keen for me to leave the cockpit, so raising and dropping sails is only done from the cockpit, or at worst the mast.

We have a couple of symmetrical spinnakers, and are competent with them, but for 2 handed they are a mountain of work. I am looking at fitting a cruising asso spinnaker, but have not yet seen one fitted to my style of boat. I am very new to all of this, so any tips or hints would be appreciated.

So, is it possible to mount a tack in front of the forestay without a short bowsprit? Or do I get a removable bowsprit made up as part of the package? A couple of photos of the bow if that makes it easier to visualise.

You might need one of these made, sorry it's upside down!

Thanks Southace, that looks very elegant. Where do you run your tack line back to?

Feed a little loop of 10mm or so rope through the anchor roller, not too thin as to cut into the roller. Attach a block with a shackle to the loop. Run tack line back to deck organiser or through mast foot block and then cabin top clutch or cleat.

you may be able to run the tack line down the side through stanchion fairleads like the furler, to a block cleat but I'm not sure about the strength, fair bit of load on the tack line which will pull on the stanchions inwards.

On our 40'er, we run straight back through deck organiser to clutch.

I have done the same on my boat no need for a prodder. I actually take the spinnaker kicker and attach it to the roller .the picture above is the first time I flew it but since then have had a strop made by the sail maker it shackles to the anchor roller not sure of the term but one of the holes the retaining pins go in it is 800 long so gets the tack above the railing. It also has a strop that goes around the furled genoa. At present I just go forward and trip the tack to pull it un but I am seriously considering a top down furler just worried I dont have enough room for it so may have to use a snuffer.
also in the above picture I was close hauled so had the tack down it is usually above the railing that photo was literally within the first 5 minutes of the first trial only jury rigged.

I had thought about the anchor roller, but was worried that the load may be too much for it. I think that setup is how I would like to do it.

Initial plan was to run the tack back along the toe rail to the cockpit, as we have a rather large flush mount forward hatch that will cause some grief coming straight back to the organisers.

Admiral has used snuffers in a previous life and is not keen on them. Her opinion is that it would always have a problem when you least wanted it. Will probably make a double length tack that we can just uncleat without having to clump forward to trip, then bring in the asso the same way as our normal spinnakers.

Thanks for the info.

Hi EC31,
I have a gennaker (aka cruising spinnaker) on my Catalina34. For me, a bowsprit is unnecessary.
The tack line is led through a block attached to the anchor roller back to the cockpit.
The clew line is led directly through a block at the stern back to the cockpit.

My gennaker is housed in a sock which makes deploying and retrieving easy peasy. I think a sock is essential for single handling a gennaker.
To deploy/retrieve the gennaker, I clip myself on to the mast & work from there - works well for me.

After researching ordering directly from an offshore sailmaker, I decided to go through an Australian sailmaker who organised it all.
This worked out very well and I would do it this way again.

pm me if you wish and I'll give you his details - no connection with him, just a happy customer.

regards,
Allan

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FreeRadical said..
Feed a little loop of 10mm or so rope through the anchor roller, not too thin as to cut into the roller. Attach a block with a shackle to the loop. Run tack line back to deck organiser or through mast foot block and then cabin top clutch or cleat.

you may be able to run the tack line down the side through stanchion fairleads like the furler, to a block cleat but I'm not sure about the strength, fair bit of load on the tack line which will pull on the stanchions inwards.

On our 40'er, we run straight back through deck organiser to clutch.

I use a similar setup as FreeRadical but I do have to go to the foredeck to connect the spinnaker. I drop the lot from the cockpit though.

Just a note on your mooring arrangement. I would suggest some fire hose as anti chafe on the rope where it goes through the fairlead and a length or cord to close down that loop a bit so it does not jump off that cleat. That would be a very temporary arrangement in the Shoalhaven or other tidal estuaries where you get strong wind over strong current.

I will probably have to put the turtle at the mast and deploy from there, but we should be able to retrieve from the cockpit.

Thanks for the mooring advice Ramona. I was on a club mooring at America's Bay, so only 24 hours max. It's a great spot to stop and gaze at the navel while thinking of how to solve the next problem.