Hi all

Just chasing a bit of advice

On my Sailmaster 845 there is a spinnaker but I did not think I had any sheets or blocks to run it

Today I was having a dig around in the bottom of the sail bins in the bow and I found 2 sheets (single only) with snap shackles on them and also blocks with shackles that will mount on the toe rails at the rear of the cockpit to lead the sheet/brace on to the winches

I have 4 winches in the cockpit and there is a topping lift on the mast and a block mounted on the deck just in front of the mast that I can use for the down haul

On the spinnaker pole there is a shackle on the top and bottom of one of the end fittings and I assume that the topping lift and down haul would attach to them

I think that if the other end of the pole was attached to the ring on the mast the pole would be short enough to dip behind the forestay to gibe the spinnaker (see photo below)

Now my question is if I want to gybe the spinnaker I know I have to drop the pole off the brace/sheet, steer directly downwind to keep the spinnaker centred to the bow, dip the pole under the forestay and then clip it on to the brace/sheet on the opposite side but I am not sure how I can clip the end of the pole on to a sheet that is loaded and supporting the spinnaker

If I had a lazy sheet//brace on each side of the spinnaker I can see how I could disconnect/connect the brace without any drama but I am not confident I can get everything to line up with only a single sheet without unclipping the other end of the pole from the ring on the mast as we do with the boat I race on where the pole is too long to dip behind the forestay ( the topping lift and down haul on the race boat are attached to the centre of the pole so we end for end it)

Any adviice on how this is supposed to work without unclipping the pole from the mast would be appreciated

Regards Don