UK Sailmakers’ Encyclopedia of Sails
4.5 – Cruising Spinnakers
The Cruising Spinnaker is an asymmetrical pole-less spinnaker that combines the ease of handling of a jib or genoa with the pulling power of a spinnaker. Because the generic name is so long, and because it improves a boat’s light-air downwind speed so much, we named the sail The UK Cruising Spinnaker.
The Cruising Spinnaker looks and performs like a spinnaker, but it requires none of the expensive extra gear needed for a spinnaker — no pole, no track on the mast, no pole lift, no foreguy and no afterguys.
In short, with the addition of a spinnaker halyard, a Cruising Spinnaker can be set and used on any boat equipped to set a jib. UK’s Cruising Spinnaker is made of lightweight nylon spinnaker cloth that comes in many different colors which you can use to create your own color scheme.
UK Sailmakers cruising spinnaker makes downwind sailing more fun on boats of all sizes.