The following article describes a safe and fast way of gybing (jibing) a spinnaker on a 40 foot yacht. The key aim has been to reduce complexity so that no one in the crew is trying to do several things at once. E.g. it’s quite a common technique, where the spinnaker trimmer tries to trim both sheets at the same time during the gybe, which on this size of boat becomes nearly impossible in a good breeze.
The method requires that you prepare by making a mark on each of the spinnaker sheets for a base trimming position where the spinnaker clews only just clears the forestay when sailing without a pole.
To break down the activities it’s easier to look at the gybing maneuver as a three phase operation:
- Preparing for Gybe (Jibe)
- Gybing
- Post-Gybe