Spinnakers seem to have a bad name in the cruising business. From the beginning, when the racing yacht “Sphinx” hauled up her “acre” of headsail, the spinnaker (Sphinx’s acre) has been considered a racing rag. For the cruiser, it can be the sail that makes those dog days of summer quite delightful. Sailing off the wind, when it’s down to less than 8 kts, can be a sloppy time but, with a ‘chute, you can be trucking along. Cruising chutes, although easier to set, don’t have the area and are not that effective in very light air and they don’t require a pole. The spinnaker pole is a multiuse item. At anchor, you can tether your dinghy off it so that it doesn’t keep bumping the hull all night, it’s a better whisker pole than the one with whiskers, and as a clothes line it beats the lifelines by keeping the clothes in the breeze. Don’t leave home without one.