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.
4.6 Using the Gennaker
If you are inexperienced in using a gennaker, choose a fairly quiet day for
you first excursion. A gennaker nearly doubles your sail area, and should
be treated with a healthy degree of respect!
For your first 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 centreboard case, and hoist the gennaker by pulling the
gennaker halyard from the right-hand halyard block (see picture 4.1).
Picture 4.1 Hoisting the Gennaker
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 filled.
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
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