asym chute on the laser
Printed From: Laser 28 International Class Association
Category: Laser 28 General
Forum Name: Sailing
Forum Description: Everything on sailing the boat
URL: http://www.laser28.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=389
Printed Date: 07 May 2024 at 10:32pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: asym chute on the laser
Posted By: Chris Ross
Subject: asym chute on the laser
Date Posted: 22 May 2010 at 11:49am
I am going to race my Laser in a couple of single handed distance races this year (a 150 mile race on Lake Michigan) and I wanted to know if anyone has tried to sail the laser with an asym spinnaker either off of a bow sprit or races with a gennaker. I'm going to keep the class chute on the boat and practice working the pole single handed, but I can imagine conditions where that would be ill advised. Any suggestions?
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Replies:
Posted By: jez rees
Date Posted: 17 June 2010 at 8:28am
We've just bought an old asymmetric from a Laser SB3, at 10.6m luff length we're going to give it a go as a fractional kite.
Haven't received it yet, but I'll let you know how it goes.
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Posted By: Mad Max
Date Posted: 20 June 2010 at 11:30pm
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I have a UK Asym that I would like to sell. Like new, has been used several times. For PHRF racing I prefer a reaching chute. If you are interested I can be reached at 716-649-6103
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Posted By: WJRyan
Date Posted: 21 June 2010 at 7:14am
Forgive the tangent but what is a reaching spinnaker andwhat does it look lke? When I bought my boat it came with 2 chites but one is very different and I have never know when/how to use it effectively. If a traditional spinnaker is shaped like a triangle the other one is shaped more like an oval and is much lighter in weight. Thanks! :)bill
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Bill Ryan,
Room4Crew, #155
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Posted By: Mad Max
Date Posted: 21 June 2010 at 8:33am
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The chute was originally an all purpose but I couldn't go down wind as fast as another Laser in my fleet. Talking to my sailmaker he said I needed a runner which did the trick. He also advised to recut the all purpose into a reacher. I believe he took out center panels and flattened the sail out. As soon as the wind starts going off the nose and we let out the Jib, its time to consider the reacher. I like it over the Asym because of the high shoulder. We can carry in it in high winds on a reach when most boats are taking their chutes down. It is also a great chicken chute.
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Posted By: WJRyan
Date Posted: 21 June 2010 at 10:26am
When you say he took out the center panels would it appear to be narrower, and perhaps longer, than the traditional spinnaker? The one I have in question is not as wide howver it is longer (top to bottom) and narrower (side to side) than the "regular" spinnaker.
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Bill Ryan,
Room4Crew, #155
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Posted By: Bill Layton
Date Posted: 21 June 2010 at 10:48am
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The factory supplied a reaching/cruising chute as an option back in the days and it was the same luff length with much smaller girths. Not quite a chicken chute but one with much smaller shoulders. The standard class chute at the time was an all purpose chute that would sail the courses we used at that time... i.e. triangles were common. Now a days, the standard class chute is the W/L chute
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Posted By: Mad Max
Date Posted: 21 June 2010 at 1:13pm
Posted By: jez rees
Date Posted: 12 July 2010 at 5:36am
A report back on our Laser SB3 asymmetric kite. Absolutely brilliant! We are flying it from a snatch block on the bow roller using the pole downhaul as a tack line. 9.5 knots boat speed this weekend when the symmetrical boats are falling over. It fits the Laser 28 perfectly, though we will be adding a bowsprit this winter. However we can gybe it without by easing the tack line, just need the bow to push the tack to leeward if it gets at all caught on the pulpit.
As you can imagine, a big class fleet in the UK like SB3s don't have a lot of use for older spinnakers, so we got it for an amazing price.
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Posted By: Chris Ross
Date Posted: 26 July 2010 at 12:06pm
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The melges 24 asym is the same size as the class sym chute... 670 sq feet. looks like you could fly it off the class pole if you want, but I think you could fly it of the bow without a pole too. I'm looking around for a used kite at the moment.
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Posted By: jez rees
Date Posted: 26 July 2010 at 12:27pm
That seems big! The SB3 kite is 46 m2 which is around 495 ft2 I think. I wouldn't recommend flying it off your spi pole unless it's around 3" diameter. We tried off of our pole which is a little shorter than a class pole at 2.95m and lashed it to the deck and pulpit...it bent horribly and soon got un-rigged!
Do you know the luff length of a Melges kite? The SB3 is 10.6m and seems to fit very well.
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Posted By: Chris Ross
Date Posted: 16 June 2011 at 7:59am
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Did you put a bowsprit on the laser this winter?
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Posted By: jez rees
Date Posted: 16 June 2011 at 9:56am
No, still haven't done it. It will affect our rating so still deliberating. We can however gybe very easily from the bow, the secret is to gybe the kite before the main.
I've just got a Melges kite to try, it's very big. The luff length is around 11.05m so I calculate that would need a 1.25m sprit to fit!
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Posted By: Chris Ross
Date Posted: 19 June 2011 at 9:26am
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Please let me know how that goes!
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Posted By: Chris Ross
Date Posted: 20 June 2011 at 8:05am
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I know a guy who used an old carbon fiber windsurfing mast as a bowsprit, and it worked very well. I think he did end up reinforcing it with some carbon fiber unidirectional cloth, but I remember him saying he didn't have to do that, he just wanted the pole to not bend at all...
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Posted By: jez rees
Date Posted: 30 August 2011 at 8:05am
I managed to get the Melges ayso experiment completed this weekend. See the photos on the FarrOut blog
http://farroutlaser28.blogspot.com/2011/08/melges-24-spi-on-laser-28-autumn-long.html
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Posted By: Chris Ross
Date Posted: 15 September 2011 at 6:16pm
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I saw the blog, thanks for the report!
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