Leeward Windward LetterBox Mexican?

Letterboxing is a heavy air tactic, not really a quality drop for typical W/L's since it has a tendency to be slow. Try being conservative in your drops by calling them a bit earlier than you may be inclined until your crew is up to speed. Weather drops need the boat to turn down at the mark to help rotate the chute to weather and relieve the pressure. Leeward strips are the simplest solution but may not orient the chute to the port side where you typically need it but it's far better to have a clean drop than a clusterfuck. Try getting an extra crew up forward for the drop and a person down below the hatch to squirrel it into the boat. Also have your guys use a swim technique to gather more chute, more quickly. Oh yeah, stay away from Mexican drops until your crew has mastered leeward and weather strips. Your pit person also needs to be up to speed, he can make or break a drop.

The disadvantage I see with theis type of drop is that you have to unclip all the gear and repack the kite (or at least re-run the tapes if setting from the bow hatch later) and then clip up again. Lotsa activity down below in the bow... I so much more prefer setting /dousing into the forward hatch, leaving everything hooked up, and almost always dousing on the port side of the boat when possible, so that you're ready for the next set (assuming std port roundings).

Remind the homeys in frontierland that the kite is easier to pull under the genoa if they do it before the sail is trimmed to go upwind. Beat on the tactician with the winch handle until they understand that then whack them a few more times so they don't forget. The goal is to sail fastest around the course, not the fastest in the last ten seconds of the leg when it costs you more than you gained by not being ready to sail upwind or having to screw around alot getting ready for the next set.

Ways of taking a symmetrical spinnaker down:

To leeward.

a) The guy snap shackle is tripped, either by standing on the pulpit, or, on a larger boat climbing to the end of the spinnaker pole (see start of "Wind"). The kite flags away behind main, and is recovered using the sheet/lazy guy.

Let the guy run until the kite is flagging behind main, as above. Generally a bad idea to let the pole hit the forestay too hard. Keeps all the corners attached to respective lines, so that someone doesn't have to go to the bow to retrieve the old guy.

Variations on the above: letterbox it, and retrieve the kite between main and boom.

c) Ease guy to forestay, tighten sheet, and dump halyard. Lots of halyard. Kite flags horizontally between pole and sheet, and is recovered (quickly!!) before it drops into the sea.

Never heard of anybody letterboxing this one - probably too slow, and you would end up trawling.

d) To windward. Pole comes off, kite is retreived using guy/lazy sheet. Generally used on symetirical dinghies with bags (rather than a chute). Not really used on larger boats - especially in any breeze, as the kite isn't in the shadow of anything. I would hazard a guess that above Etchells/J24-ish sizes, it isn't commonly used. Also, I would hazard that it only really works on deep runs - otherwise you have to haul the whole kite around the forestay.

Drops involving gybes.

e) Dropping on the old leeward side. Generally used when coming into the mark at a higher angle. Pole removed, boat gybes and kite is dropped into jib. Generally more useful when coming into the mark at a higher angle.

f) Dropping on the old windward side. Pole is removed, boat gybed and then halyard blown. Kite must be recovered quickly as it flags away from old sheet on forestay and guy. Generally more useful when running deep into a mark, and the kite is rolled well out to weather.

The problems that can arise from all the above are numerous - not least because people have different names for them. Some call ? a float drop, while to others a float drop is (f). Drop (e) is generally referred to as a Mexican - apparently coined by Buddy Melges in the 92 San Diego AC, the boats would be pointing at Mexico during the manoever.

Basically, for a Mexican you do the following:

on starboard tack, raise the headsail
prepare to gibe but keep the spin on the port side (i.e., get the pole out of the way)
gibe and keep the headsail inside the starboard lifelines
blow the spin halyard - feed it into the foredeck hatch
Let the back of the boat know you are ready to tack!

Don't know why it is called a Mexican, but when done correctly the spin practically drops itself into the hatch and you are ready to pull it out when you get back to the windward mark.