If you are inexperienced in using a gennaker, choose a fairly quiet day for you rst
excursion. A gennaker nearly doubles your sail area, and should be treated with a healthy
degree of respect!
For your rst hoist you should be sailing downwind on a broad reach, with the wind coming
over the helm’s left shoulder. The crew should sit in the centre of the boat, astride the
daggerboard case, and hoist the gennaker by pulling the gennaker halyard from the right-
hand halyard block.
The gennaker halyard pulls the bowsprit out at the same time – when the gennaker is
hoisted, you are ready to go. The crew, or the helm if sailing singlehanded, should now
pull gently on the leeward gennaker sheet until the gennaker has lled. Gennakers may
be effectively used from a close reach to a broad reach so, to get downwind, one should
become adept at gybing. It is not possible to tack with the gennaker hoisted. For the best
effect, the gennaker sheet should always be eased as far as possible, so that the luff is just
on the point of curling.
4.5 - Sailing Downwind and Gybing
4.6 - Using the Gennaker
When sailing downwind, both sails should be let out as far as possible. Single- handed
sailors should adopt a relaxing, reclined pose astride the thwart area, leaning back against
the side deck. To gybe, pull the tiller towards you and, as the boat starts to turn, step across
the cockpit facing forward. Once the boat has completed the turn, bring the tiller back into
the centre before sitting down on the new side, with the tiller extension behind your back.
Often, the boom will not want to come across until you have nearly completed the gybe, so
it often pays to give the mainsheet a tweak to encourage the boom over at the moment that
you want it to come! Once you are settled, swap the mainsheet and the tiller extension into
the new hands.
Top Tip
Be aware that the boom can come across with some force during a gybe (intentional
or not!) so mind your head and watch for unintentional gybes.
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