Spinnaker Handling

Elise has a symmetric chute (the most classic type). It runs symmetrical alongside the boat with a guy running from windward corner of the sail and stabilized with a spinnaker pole. The leeward corner of the sail is hooked up to the sheet for trimmer, much like a regular headsail.

The spinnaker pole must be moved in each jibe, and is therefore quite difficult for beginners to use. However, it can be sailed in all downwind wind directions, including running straight downwind. When correctly set, the leading edges of a symmetric spinnaker (which is most of the top half of the sail) should be nearly parallel to the wind - this in turns helps you set the angle of the pole to the wind (roughly perpendicular).

The symmetric spinnaker also requires care when packing, since the three corners must be available on the top of the packing.

The asymmetrical spinnaker (J105-style) is a more modern spinnaker. It basically feels like a gigantic genoa (two sheets and no guy). It is very easy to gybe since it only requires releasing one sheet and pulling the other. However, they are unable to sail directly downwind (hence the zigzag pattern with loads and loads of jibes sometimes...)

During our practice day, I said that we did numerous jibes. Here's roughly what happens at that time: the foredeck person stands behind the pole facing forward, usually back against the mast, each foot on either side of the mast. Often, the person has grabbed the sheet to make sure that there is plenty of slack in there. (the spinnaker is twinged in hard at that point) The pole is squared back and the boat will come deep downwind. This will help with jerky movement sideways on part of the spinnaker - the foredeck crew will then disconnect the pole from the mast and the guy at the same time, just before the jibe. As the boat turns downwind, the foredeck person puts the sheet into the pole jaw, passes the pole across the boat, pushes it forward and attach the free end to the mast. Meanwhile, the trimmers ease the sheet and trim the guy to keep the spinnaker full during the poleless part of the jibe. The person on the new guy needs to give some slack and the pit person pays out some foreguy to make the shift of the pole easy (and possible!)
As soon as the pole is back on the mast, the foreguy person shouts 'Made' and the spinnaker can be trimmer again (eg. put under solid load again) - in light air, most skippers will pull the main across at the same time as the pole is moved from side to side. In heavier air, it might be best to wait and make sure that everything is clean on the foredeck to pull the main across and actually jibe the boat. This is totally fine, even in a jibe with the genoa up only, the headsail typically jibes first, regardless. It is important to keep the angle of the boat to the wind pretty far down to avoid broaching (rounding up) which is fairly typical otherwise :)