The Rig

The tall rig is a 2.0 kg/m minimum aluminium tube from Sparcraft in France. Some older boats have carbon fiber masts, as these were permitted earlier. The spreaders are slightly angled backwards (11 degrees), to make jibing a little safer. The mast is supported by 3 sets of running backstays (6 to 8 mm Dyneema), but no permanent backstay, as the large roach would not allow one.

Note the short lower spreaders that allow the #1 genoa to be sheeted between the inner and outer bottom verticals. The two upper sets of spreaders and the shroud base are wide, providing good support sideways.

"So I still keep going, and put the smaller kite up, but something goes wrong in the hoist, the boat lurches to windward, and the kite is flapping crazily in the breeze - the spinnaker sheet clips then undo themselves and I've got 50 square metres of spi flying out in the front of the boat with almost no way of retrieving it. I broach the boat, blow the halyard and manage to grab some of it.....hanging on to the this on the foredeck and then stretching back to release the halyard, it starts to come in.

The halyard jams halfway, and I find myself being lifted off the foredeck by the kite! Eventually it comes down, and I literally crawl back to the cockpit, shove it down the hatch, and go to sleep. The boat sails on under pilot and main alone - not very race trim. But its time for a time out."