We have two great new accessories for Hobie Islands!

The cut on the spinnaker on that TI (ie... The sails design) is very impressive. Down here we see a lot of big monohull cruisers with giant genoas just cruising up an down the ICW in light air. It looks like now islands will be able to do that too. Maybe now in the summer mine won't be the only Island out on the water anymore (looking forward to seeing more Islands out on the water). In light air on a stock Island nobody enjoys going 2mph (mostly by pedal power), thats why most stay home, hopefully this will change that.
FE

During my experiments, I unfurled the mainsail while the spinnaker was up and working, and hardly noticed any speed improvement!(*) That spinnaker really works well (and looks bloody beautiful when not hidden behind the main! LOL>)...

(*) To bre fair, I didn't play round with sheeting angles, and I suspect that it will be quite important to get the slot between the two sails the right width and shape. Looking forward to finding out!)

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

How are you making out with the spinnaker furled and tacking the main?

Do you have to resort to a partial furl of the main to clear the rear portion of the spinnaker halyard?

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2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]

With the spinnaker furled, the very slack backstay just flops over with the top of the mainsail, causing no major change to the shape of the latter. Incidentally, I seem to always have LOTS of spare spinnaker halyard/backstay in my cockpit, yet I thought you seemed to have far less spare. This could influence your backstay causing the main to adopt an awkward shape on one tack when the spinnaker is furled. (I am going to shorten the top batten to reduce the backstay catching, but this is only for cosmetic reasons.)

Of course I do have to partially furl the mainsail, but ONLY when gybing with the spinnaker flying, and Hobie's instructions say to do that. Why would I ignore the basic rule of physics involved?

Watching Scott Lovig's video demonstration (posted by Yakass) includes a very salient point... handling the sails becomes much easier in the real world (ie rather than on the trailer in the driveway) as the following wind tends to blow the loose halyards clear of the mast.

I am not in any way disputing that you and others have experienced issues, but I haven't

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

That may be my mistake: too tight a halyard.

I got started on making it as tight as possible when I was trying to avoid the entanglement with the #1 batten on the mainsail and never thought to back off once I had added the PVC to the front of the halyard.

Also, I moved the snuffer sock to the port side, leaving the halyard routing on starboard - liking the less-busy look... but maybe that also ate into my halyard slack.

Got some warm weather/light wind coming later this week.... maybe I will give it another go in light of all this.

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2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]

Peter, my guess is that having the snuffer on the opposite side to the cleats and pulleys etc is a recipe for entanglement, as this immediately causes lines to cross past the mast.

IMO, having all the spinnaker gear on the same side is important. I chose the port side, to minimise the number of lines running along the hull together. You should finish up with s lot of spare halyard/backstay line aft of the cleat, and the lint leading up from the bottom of the sail should be really loose when the spinnaker is flying.

My cleat is just inside the left front ama mount, and I added the supplied brackets beneath the akas, to help ensure a smooth run alongside the hull.. The snuffer sits about 15" in from the top stud at the end of the aka.

I will add some pvc pipe at thre mast topper too, but otherwise everything is stock.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

I have mine setup just like Tony's except that my spin cleats are about half way out on the amas and my snuffer is 4/5th of the way out. I have 17 inches of 1/2in PVC attached at the top of the halyard as seen below. Snuffer on port side.



Everything working fine although I still get a rare correctable tangle if I furl very fast.

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

I moved the lines to port (where the snuffer already is), shortened a few knots, and now have what seems to me like a generous amount of slack in the halyard.

In this state, with the spinnaker snuffed, I can point without any contention with the halyard.... maybe even a close reach.... but anything beyond that, the halyard deforms the sail.

i.e. The slack in the halyard allows the sail to take it's shape without pressing on the halyard when pointing or perhaps close reaching, but the halyard will NOT slide up and over to the windward side of the sail on a full reach.

Partial furling of the sail in an effort to let the halyard slip over to the other side does not work because the halyard catches on the #1 batten (which is already trimmed to zero protrusion)...... so, basically, the halyard stays on one side of the sail; does not deform it when pointing, but deforms it when reaching.

Have I got it right?

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2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]

Peten has the furling tangles diminished?

As long as there is some tension on the clew of the main while furling, I would think that you should be able to partially furl the main while the spin is up.

Greg

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

I still don't have enough sailing hours up to be definitive about the halyard catching issue Peter, but I seriously have BAGS of spare halyard/backstay in my lap when the spinnaker is flying. I have not yet fully checked if there is enough spare to allow the main to have an undisturbed shape when reaching. I will try again this Sunday.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Since I added the 21" PVC to the fore side of the topper/halyard, tangles have become rare-to-non-existant and any tangle that does occur can easily be recovered from on the water just by un-furling/furling a couple of times. .... Apparently because the PVC prevents the halyard from wrapping around the #1 batten.

True dat..... but my experience so far is that halyard will always be on one side of the sail and can never, ever be migrated to the other side.

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2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]

Peter, how can you find space for as 21 inch piece of pvc on the halyard. Maybe the AI reacher is shorter in relation to the mast than the TI (could be to accommodate AI1s as well as AI2s), but on the TI, there is not enough room.

Of course, for shallower reaches, you want to be able to get a reasonably tight luff, but in this photo, no excessive force was applied to the halyard.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Yes, that appears to be the case. ..... Mine might even take 24".

FYI, I am selling my SpinKit and moving on: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=57713

FWIW, it's not the furling issue - which has been resolved to my satisfaction, nor is it the halyard's effect on sail shape, which I could probably learn to live with.

Instead, it is all that additional line laying around..... It's just not "me"..... One attraction of the AI for me is it's simplicity.... and the SpinKit's halyard and sheeting lines defeat that for me. .... Entanglement, limited grey matter and all that... Especially entanglement.

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2015 AI in "Dune" - "The Grey Pig"
2017 Trailex 450 Trailer
Pre-September 2015 cradles
(anybody want to buy a slightly-used AI SpinKit?)
eMail: [email protected]

Sorry to hear that Pete, but you sure gave it a good try! Having come from racing keelboats, even adding the complexity of Hobie's reacher is nothing compared to what I used to deal with... would you believe that my mainsail alone had eleven controls?
Add seven more for the headsail, plus five more for the spinnaker (plus two more halyards as spares!), and a Hobie Island is like going on holidays by comparison.

A stock standard Island is a joy to own and sail, and you will probably have much more fun (like I have for the past 4 years)

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Thanks for all the effort and posts Pete. Adding the spinnaker is decision that certainly has pros and cons. The more I use it, the more I like it but I'm big into sails and like to stay busy in the cockpit. I don't think that's the norm. I'm using the sheets for both the jib and spinnaker so the extra lines don't bother me as much as they might someone else. If someones focus is fishing, making room for pets, enjoying view while relaxing, the spinnaker could be a negative.

If a person decides they want one, I think Hobie has done a very good job with the design of this spinnaker. Now I tend to sail upwind as far as I can so that I can then jibe back using the spinnaker near a beam reach to maximize the time with it up and the adrenaline rush. It's become my favorite sail on the boat. It took a while to get use to it though.

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis