Cruising Chutes

[Andy Moore]

We have a cruising chute with a 'snuffer'. When we first got it we played with it quite a lot, but never got it to draw very satisfactorily. The breeze was either too far aft or too far forward.

Anyone else have any experience? I feel the need to experiement again.:cool:

[Dan Roper]

I have had a cruising chute for several years and find it excellent in the right conditions.Ideally you want the wind on the quarter, and F4 or less. It can be a substitute for the engine if the wind is light. I find it best to have a tight luff and to sheet it as far aft as possible - I have a couple of blocks I fix to the stern mooring cleats. You get most drive out of it when it is just shy of collapsing. It is also best if the sea state is not too rough to avoid filling and then flapping.
With the wind aft you can fix the tack of the chute to the spi pole and move it out to one side and have the clew on the other to make it into a sort of spinnaker
Under good conditions it is a very rewarding sail - partcularly when you thereby avoid the iron topsail.

[Andy Moore]

I guess it comes down to the type of cut. There is an advert that runs in Yachting World most months by a loft selling off-the-peg cruising shutes, by LOA. They do two versions, depending on wind angle.

If one only wanted to carry one, its hard to decide which cut to opt for I think. Both, obviously, have their merits.

[andyb]

We have had a cruising chute for many years and it always comes out a few times a year, if nothing else to prove that it has no holes in it! We find it excellent in light airs, but tend to find that it often needs setting on its own without the main up if the wind is aft of the quarter. It still usually gives better speed then, than any other sail configuration. I always prefer that than resorting to the iron topsail.

We rig it on a single continuous sheet so that we can simply gybe it straight round the forestay. We have a snuffer and that makes it very easy to get it up and down. As someone who has raced a lot with full crews, I appreciate a lot the ability to get it down again very short-handed. I would recommend snuffers - ours is very effective.

AndyB

[Andy Moore]

We rig it on a single continuous sheet so that we can simply gybe it straight round the forestay.
So you have it tacked down forward of the forestay? We don't and as such if we gybe, the down-tack kinks around the forestay and I am concerned that it puts too much strain on the base of the forestay.:mad:

[andyb]

Yes, we tack the chute down on a wire about eighteen inches to two foot long which is attached ahead of the forestay by the anchor roller. We then attach it via a lanyard that we can adjust so that it flies well clear and gybe the whole thing completely clear around the forestay. It seems to work well. If it is blowing a little harder, then you can always snuff it behind the main and then simply gybe the main and unsnuff it again.

Andy B