Spinnaker advice needed ....

I had my 8 year old using the kite for the first time on Saturday (never realised how slow it was without one till we took it down!).

The only difficulty we had was that the guy kept jumping out of the forked end of the pole. It was a nice force 4 with reasonable waves, and she was perfectly well mannered apart from this one problem.

Is there likely to be something simple we were doing wrong, or should I just get a piston end for the pole to remove a possibly distraction for my young apprentice?

Cheers

Gareth



Edited by - garetht on 25 June 2007 11:23:20

Squeeze forks together until gap suits the rope size you are using. not to loose so it does not jump out, not too tight so you can get the rope in and out of the forks.

piston ends are fine if you are d/h but if you essentially s/h with a small child keep with the forks as you can do it with one hand and use the other on the tiller.

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
piston ends are fine if you are d/h but if you essentially s/h with a small child keep with the forks as you can do it with one hand and use the other on the tiller.

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>

Best hope Sam doesn't read that .... I think he stopped seeing himself as a small child some time ago!

Squeezed the forks a bit and it worked a treat.

So while all his trendy feva sailing mates were sat on the shore cos it was too windy, Sam got to play spinnakers with me!

Cheers

That's exactly it! We were doing this at the weekend, with my 8 year oild crew, and the rope was too loose in the fork - got it perfect now...

Burl

Whats trendy about the Feva. I hear all sorts of things about these boats and its all bad news, especially if you are the poor soul who owns one.

Mirror is much better. Suits the whole family and can take you from complete beginner to International Superstar (aka Anna and Holly) (and me of course!!)

Well done with the spinnaker, practice makes perfect....

The Feva is trendy at our club .... in an emperor's new clothes way, the same as the pico was before it.

My kids have been brought up on old/traditional designs - watching me in my OK, cruising in a Wayfarer, and learning in the Mirror and Optimists. One of the advantages these boats all share over their more contemporary cousins is that they can handle a bit of wind, so my boys see a windy day as a lot of fun, whereas their mates just sh#t themselves!!!

Ultimately, I'm sure these 'old' boats will be around long after the fevas have turned to jelly, because they were designed to be sailed rather than to be marketted.

Can anybody point me towards a url link for these spinnaker pole fork ends.

Ta

P&B catalogue page 70(u) part no 70-5079 22mm ID fork end

01604-592808

Huxley
The first item on this web page may be what what you are looking for. They have a different reference than Trello quotes.
shop.pinbax.com/index.asp?select ... ole%20Ends

Roger
59725

<img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle> Ouch! £££££££££££££
Are you sure it's that one and not the Z spars one further down the page which unfortunately isn't illustrated? This question keeps cropping up - it should go in Mirror FAQs. I'm sure Z spars was the buzz word when I changed my pole end to a fork, but can't remember where I bought mine from. It was certainly nearer £10 than £30 otherwise I'd have been out in the workshop improvising my own. <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

pigs might.....

This is the one I got .... Z-Spars from LDC

shop.ldcracingsailboats.co.uk/index.asp?...%2025mm%20Fork%20end

thanks - just what I was after.

Are there any gotchas of using a fork over an enclosed end?


Edited by - huxley on 12 July 2007 07:43:23

yes there are - but you can deal with it.

If the fly away pole back stop is too far back the fork is behind the mast when stowed.

When you go to extend the pole the fork can catch on the pole height adjuster up haul.

Move the back stop forward so the fork is along side the mast when stowed and a little bit in front of the pole height adjuster.

Plus

To place the guy always extend the pole a couple of inches in front of the mast before you reach up to put the guy in. This means you will have resistance to push against when inserting the guy into the fork with one hand.

If your guy is not running through the fork check if it is twisted round the fork or if your forks are not sitting vertically. If you mount your forks horizontally in the pole you will find the guy does not slide through the fork so easily.

When removing the guy from the fork a quick hard pull is better than trying to be gentle. In stong winds the guy will often pull off the forks itself when you let the pole in making it easier for a S/H.

The web site doesn't show the correct one but it's in the P&B catalogue @ £11.46, yes it is the Z-Spar one.