The cruising chute or spinnaker
is first ‘loaded’ into the dowser
sock by shackling the head of the sail
to the eye at the lower end of the
spacer strop. See that both luffs are
straight and untangled, then pull the
fibreglass bucket down over the sail.
Once loaded there is no further need
to adjust the sail.

The dowser arrives with its own line
running through a pulley at the top,
down through the inside of the sock
to end at the top of the fib reglass
bucket the other end, or fall, passes
the outside of the sock and is made
fast to the lower end of the bucket.
When this dowser line is hauled, the
bucket is hoisted towards the
masthead so that the sock is folded
into a concertina form; when the
bucket is right up, the dowser line is
made fast. The downhaul is attached
to the bottom of the bucket and
forms an endless line with the dowser
line, and must be able to run clear as
the dowser is opened or closed.

The downhaul is used when the chute
is to be doused (by pulling the sock
down over the collapsed sail); the
final ‘sausage’ may then be lowered
at leisure by the main spinnaker
halliard.