Flying the Spinnaker

We didn’t have a spinnaker with our last boat, and we’ve never flown one before. A lot of thought and family ‘discussion’ went into choosing the design, and we were all really excited to finally see it unfurled. A spinnaker is a large, colorful, parachute-type sail that is used to sail downwind or near-downwind. Ours is an asymmetrical, which is flown off of the bowsprit (the pole extension off of the front of the boat). When you want to take it down, it’s ‘doused’ in a sock, which is pulled down from the top. The girls think it looks like a large worm when it’s in its sock.

Katie got to raise it for the first time, and it was much easier to raise and douse than I was worried about. Our sail that day was smooth and fast and everything that sailing should be.