Charissa is a yacht with a proud racing tradition, originally sailed by Frank Hammond with great success.   I use her mainly for local cruising around the Indented Head area, more often than not by myself or with a novice crew.  Having come from a racing background I very much wanted to be able to use a spinnaker.

The project was to fit an asymetrical spinanaker that could improve singlehanded performance and be easy to use.

To get the spinnaker away from the boat, we have fitted a one meter removable bowsprit that fits into a fabricated stainless steel cradle at the bow.  This has rubber in the cradle to to stop rattling and is simply lashed down with some Spectra line.  The other end simply clips onto a DRing mounted on the vertical face of the coachhouse roof.

The end of the bowsprit is fitted with a conventional parrot beak.

The asymetrical spinnaker was designed and cut by John Hooper of  Hooper sails.  It is a large sail, I am pretty sure larger than a standard E24 spinnaker.

The sail has a furler with the drum at the bottom.  I have used one with the drum rather than a continuous line type.  I am not sure if I have made the right decision, as this can jam at times.

Hoisting is simple as once clipped onto the end of the bowsprit, the sail is hoisted fully furled, it has with two sheets as if it was a headsail.  When ready, the furler line is un cleated, and the sheet is pulled on to unfurl.  

To douse the opposite procedure is used.  simply pull onthe furling line and the spinnaker furls up.

It is brilliant on broad reaches, but obviously not as good directly downwind as a conventional spinnaker.

My goal was to be able to hoist the sail before I left the mooring and then simply unfurl it when off the wind, and furl when on the wind.  Unfortunately, with a convex leach, the sail flutters, terribly  so I cant really do that,  I may get it recut to have a hollow leach.
Gybing is simple either by simply letting off one sheet, gybing and pulling  on the other sheet.  If the wind is a bit stronger,  I can furl the asymmetrical, gybe then unfurl the kite again.  All can easily be done by on person. 
Was it a worthwhile experiment, absolutely, I am able to use it easily by myself, the performance increase is wonderful,  the fun increase is even better.