The post that you are responding to came from David Ashline dashline@gmail.com. Maybe he will see this, but you should probably write to him directly. Years ago, my Bristol 26 came with full Spinnaker gear, but I sail with a skinny crew and a conservative captain (me). I ended up donating it to the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
Have fun,
Jon Lewit
N26 #115 - Inua - Kingston, NY
I had one , came with the boat. Not much use as it I could only use it in apparent wind under 8 knots as over that the bow was taking on water… it really needed a pole to work and the main had to be down. Never got the hang of it…
I can understand why Thor ditched the spinnaker. It is the last thing a Nonsuch needs and a reason that I bought a Nonsuch in the first place. A properly trimmed sail is more efficient than a spinnaker. That is why the west coast PHRF rules classify Nonsuches as sailing with a flying sail. They were fed up with Nonsuches winning the non spinnaker events. The main sheet has to be long enough to allow the boom to go past 90 degrees with the choker eased off. The trick is to maximize the airflow over the sail “wing” which lowers air pressure on the front of the sail. (Bernoulli effect) This provides more drive than having the sail at 90 degrees to the wind with no airflow.
Nonsuches do not need to store sails and sheets down below which leaves more space for storing important stuff like grog. Sails and sheets often are wet when brought below and contribute to the growth of mildew and mould. One mechanic servicing my engine told me he liked Nonsuches because the owners kept them clean and smelled sweet. I had to admit it is not the owners but the boat’s design that has to take the credit.
I have found that if the mainsheet is long enough and you let the sail out well past 90 degrees in a strong breeze the boat will heel to windward. It can be rather exciting to say the least.
I know that bloopers were optional original equipment on many of the boats.
It might be worthwhile for those interested in spinnakers to find out what the original design considerations were for the masts, to ensure that whatever sails you choose to fly don’t exert forces beyond what the masts were specified to handle.
My guess is that leaves a lot of latitude, but I don’t myself know the details.