anchor v sailing at anchor

Nothing multi-hull specific, but if you're using a second anchor to allievate sailing-at-anchor, you might consider an old sailing ship technique called "Anchor under foot".

Set the first anchor and hook up the bridle as normal. Then, drop the second anchor directly down off the bow. Ease out only about 10' of rode more than the depth of the water.

The idea is that when the boat starts to sail off, the nearly vertical anchor causes enough resistance that the bow slows down and the stern catches up. The boat still sails back and forth a bit, but it really just wags it's tail in the wind - the bow's left/right movement is way less than a boat length.

I've done this a lot with just a 10 pound dinghy anchor dropped off the bow of an 18 ton boat. Works great.

good spin link - basic tips

http://www.mysailing.com.au/news/spinnaker-stories1

windward takedowns to have spin ready for next hoist

hell even Olso 30s do it that way you have to douse the kite to the side you will likely set on at the next hoist.

this means learning to do windward takedowns consistently, as well as poleless gybesets. Both of which are quite doable if you have a consistent bow and trimmer.

Roll to the left/ Roll tp the Right

We're not talking pole to headstay ease, more like 6-8" when u start rolling, maybe little more. This will help calm the boat down for the few seconds you need to get your shit together. If it is that puffy, why isn't someone looking back for the puffs? Realistically only the driver needs to be looking forward, and only so he doesn't hit anything. Homeboy trimming the guy sits backwards, goes OOO thats a big one, eases a foot waits for it to pass, brings it back. Also a hard pump on the main will also help the boat round up, heel to L and stop the roll. Watch any of the good college crews DW, an FJ DW is super shady, they are always looking back for 1 puffs, either comming or how to get to them, and having a hand on the vang to crank it just before that puff hits. Instead of playing the vang, play the guy a little more when the puffs hit. . . . You would be amazed how just putting the bow up 10 deg will put the boat back in a rock solid state. There are a number of reasons this is true, but primarily you reattach flow on both sails from the luff to the leach, ie reaching. When running ddw, wind will oscillate from one direction to the other to around both sides, top and bottom of the sails... very unstable. Moving the pole forward, up, down, in or out will not change the stall characteristics of sails DDW. As a matter of fact, when you ease the pole forward you accentuate the rolling ability of the chute!

General Up & Down tips

Upwind:

-Weight out of the ends, especially the back of the bus was critical. Light air I drove from in front of the wheel, reaching back to steer.
-Light air dramatic amounts of headstay sag was fast. In light, lump we sometimes carried 18" of sag.
-In ultra-light, we used the baby stay to open the main leach.
-Up wind in 25+, we let the top of main actually invert, vang sheeted and sailed on a nice flat #3. You may have to reinforce the deck around the partners to really vang sheet depending on how your vang is rigged. Well, we had to anyway.
-The rig was drum tight and we ultimately had to reinforce the deck beam.
-Hike bitches!

Downwind:

-We used flat headed kites and low pole to force an assymetrical shape in light and medium airs. Sailed at about 145 TWA, in medium airs, 135 TWA in light, (or 90-100 AWA).
-We carried the pole consistently about 2' lower than the clew and always went for speed over depth until the breeze was in the teens.
-We had incredibly light light air spin sheets, 3/32" kevlar core leech cord line. NO shackles. NO guys until solid 12 TWS.
-Breezy reaches we sometimes reefed, given helm from the oversized main.
-In a breeze, we had a bullet-proof 1.5 oz. stable runner that we could carry up to about 32TWS, but by then you were dialing for dollars on the helm.
-Low pole, never back more than 45?, twinged down. As SOON as the rig started to move to weather, BAM on the wheel to get the boat vertical. No hesitation.

Traveller Up, Sheet off

Some times have the traveler way to weather and slack the main sheet in a blow. This allows the head to twist off ad de-power the main without flogging as much and allows us to point higher.

more DeathRoll avoidance

The key is to develop a feel for how hard the boat can roll before you lose it. The usual roll pattern is a good roll to windward, a stronger roll to leeward, and then an even stronger roll to windward, which is when you will lose it. The key is to steer up hard on the third roll, which will stop the boat from rolling. It's even better if you steer off on the leeward roll, which will dampen the overall intensity, but it is absolutely essential to steer up hard as the boat begins to roll to windward, so the boat stays under the masthead.

The "training wheels" strategy of pole forward and low will dampen the roll, as will keeping the chute well trimmed. Ease the vang in a round-up, but not on a round-down, since a loose mainsail leach forces the masthead to weather and makes it nearly impossible to jibe back if you lose it.

In extremis, you can blow the sheet, but do it quickly, so the spinnaker luff doesn't increase the windward roll. Don't blow the afterguy. This will break the pole on the forestay and probably the tull-luff, too.

Chicken stays should go from the pole butt to the rail. The goal is to prevent the pole from pushing the mast out of column, but if the tip of the pole is well and truly buried, something will break. The cheapest candidate is the mast car, the most expensive is the mast. A foreguy to led to the middle of the foredeck will prevent the water force from rotating the pole aft and keep it away from the shrouds.