Spinnaker Handling: Twings

A recent addition to modern spinnaker handling are a set of control lines called 'twings'. Twings are used to control the position of the spinnaker sheet and guy to shape the sail, and although they are not standard rigging from Beneteau, they are easy to rig on a First 260 or First 25s.

 

In the picture, you can see both the sheet and guy. Although hidden on the port (guy) side, you can see the twing attached to the sheet of starboard, holding it slightly down to give a better lead angle to the clew. This gives better sail shape. On the pole side, the twing helps the pole-down line control pole position.

This diagram gives a good feel for how the lines are laid out. Ideally, you can control the twing from the cockpit as shown.

Looking back at the first picture, the control device (F) is a Harken 150 camcleat with a Extreme Angle fairlead on it, mounted on the outer side of the coaming. You can see it easily in the picture. Here it is easily accessible by crew, and as the mounting is in the locker, it makes the install very easy. The deck is un-cored in this area, and the back is easy to reach to mount the nuts and backing plates.

The turning block (D) is special on the First 260 as the boat has a teak toerail, making rail mounting difficult. To overcome this, I replaced the aft shroud chainplate pin with a large D-shackle, and attached a block to this. This is a great solution because it does not require any deck drilling, and is in perfect position. The line run back to the the cleat is fair, just make sure you get the correct angle set when mounting the cleat. Mark this run out with tape, and set the cleat at 180 degrees to the tape.

Some boats like to combine the block and control devices into a single unit, using a dual purpose device as shown at right. We tried this, but I did not like having to go the the shrouds to adjust the twings if I could not get the cleat to unjam from the cockpit. The upside is you do not have to drill any holes in the boat.

The sheet attachment block (E) should be a small snatch block, as you do not want to run and un-run the sheet and guy through this block all the time. Allen makes a nice set that can be attached to the twing line. As a option, you can also use ceramic or aluminum low-friction rings spliced to the line. Again the downside is you have to un-run the sheet to get them off.








Beyond helping shape the sail, the twings come in handy at other times:

1) Gybes - bring both twings part way on as they help keep the clews down, making the job of your foredecker easier.

2) Heavy air. With both twings on, the kite is 'choked down' and is held flatter. This keeps it more stable, and less powerful.

Be sure to practice a lot with them, as they are easy to forget and set in the wrong position can really mess up your sail shape. But used correctly they are wonderful. We find them a great addition to sail control on BlueJ.