SPINNAKER HALYARDS, OIITHAUL, &C.
Spinnaker halyards are invariably single, rove through a tail block at the topmast head.
The spinnaker boom is usually fitted with a movable goose-neck at its inner end. The goose-neck is generally put into its socket on the mast, and then the boom end is brought to the shank. At the outer end are a couple of good-sized thumb cleats, between which the after and fore guy are put, there being a running eye in each. The fore guy, when one is used, is a single rope; the after guy is a pendant with a block at the end, through which a rope is rove. The standing part of this rope is made fast to a cavel-pin, or cleat on the quarter, and so is the hauling part when belayed. The after guy thus forms a single whip-purchase (see Plate I.). The outhaul is rove through a tail block,* at the outer end of the spinnaker boom. The topping lift consists of two single, a double and single, or two double blocks, according to the size of the yacht.
Formerly a bobstay was used; but, if the boom is not allowed to lift, it will bend like a bow ; in fact, the bobstay was found to be a fruitful cause of a boom breaking, if there was any wind at all, and so bobstays were discarded. The danger of a boom breaking through its buckling up can be greatly lessened by having one hand to attend to the topping lift ; as the boom bends haul on the lift, and the bend will practically be " lifted" out.
Small yachts seldom have a fore guy to spinnaker boom, but bend a rope to the tack of the sail (just as the outhaul is bent) leading to the bowsprit end; this rope serves as a fore guy, or brace, to haul the boom forward; and when the spinnaker requires to be shifted to the bowsprit, the boom outhaul is slackened up and the tack hauled out to bowsprit end. Thus double outhauls are bent to the spinnaker tack cringle, and one rove through the sheave hole or block at the spinnaker boom end, and the other through a block at bowsprit end. But generally the large spinnaker (set as such) has too much hoist for the jib spinnaker, and a shift of spinnakers has to be made; even in such case no fore guy is used in small vessels, but to let the boom go forward one hand slackens up the topping lift a little, and another the after guy, and, if there be any wind at all, the boom will readily go forward. Generally, instead of a sheave
in the boom, a tail block is used for the outhaul as it is found difficult to get a fair lead with the sheave. A hole is made in the boom end, through which the tail of the block is passed and secured. In a five-tonner the after guy is a single rope without purchase, and r'he topping lift is also a single rope, rove through a block under the lower cap.
As spinnaker booms are now carried so very long, they will not go under the fore stay ; consequently, when the spinnaker has to be shifted, the boom must be unshipped. To shift the boom, the usual practice is to top it up, lift it out of the goose-neck, and then lower the end down the fore hatch or over the side of the vessel until the other end will clear the forestay.
When spinnakers were first introduced no goose-neck was used, the heel of the boom being lashed against the mast. A practice then some times was to have a sheave hole at either end of the boom, with a rope three times the length of the boom rove through each sheave hole. One end of this rope served as the outhaul, the other for the lashing round the mast. To shift over, the boom was launched across to the other rail, and what had been the inboard end became the outboard end. Of course the guys had to be shifted from one end to the other. As spinnaker booms are now of such enormous length, it would be almost impossible, and highly dangerous, to work them in this way, although it might do for a five-tonner.
Spinnaker booms when first fitted with the goose-neck were no longer than the length from deck to hounds, so that they could be worked under the forestay without being unshipped. However, it would appear that the advantages of a longer boom are greater than the inconvenience of having to unship it for shifting, and now, generally, a spinnaker boom when shifted and topped up and down the mast, reaches above the upper cap.