Due to my Rs300 being very sick and in for repair ... I find myself sailing my trusty Merlin (3326) singlehanded for much of the next 6 weeks. So any suggestions/words of advice from those of you out there that regulary sail alone (sniff sniff) as to how best to make the whole thing work. 

So far my best move has been to add two cleats on the cross bench to control my jib lines from back behind the main hoop .. but I have no idea how to get the spinny up singlehanded (single pole system). I have seen people do it BUT HOW ??

Steve @ Felpham SC

Try this:-
UP:- pole clips onto guy, then onto mast, set the downhaul.
Now cleat the sheet/guy and hoist smoothly & rapidly. 

Down:- release the sheet; uncleat and retrieve the spinnaker, uncleat guy, downhaul remove pole and tidy up.

In both cases, you have the pole set before hoisting and after lowering. Gybing is more interesting - I'd suggest dropping & rehoisting!

Colin

Try some elastic to hold the tiller central whilst you go forward to do the spinaker.  This has been used to good effect in the past.

Try surgery. Get an extra pair of arms grafted on. Preferably from and orang-utan

I'd sooner Dr Frankenstein did it don't want to end up under the cellar floor!

Cheers guys .. i have some thick elastic so will try that one in light winds !! .. anything stronger and the Kite will stay down i think. I must admit it has been a pleasure so far sailing the Merlin in races that I would normally have been in the Rs300 .. Just goes to prove that sometimes pure speed isnt everything.

Steve

Sailed a Merlin single handed or with my young daughter for a while prior to converting to a Laser…

The only changes I found necessary were a longer set of spinnaker sheets with two knots such that one could deploy the pole without being committed to the spinnaker hoist i.e. spinnaker pole on with spinnaker remaining in shute & the twinning line on. At this time one knot would be against the ratchet block on the side of the pole. The distance between the two knots being just over the distance between the two ratchet blocks. The reason for this was that my boat has twin cleats for the guy, one positioned such that it cleats the spinnaker guy when pulled from aft i.e. by the helmsman but automatically uncleats when pulled from any other angle. This second knot has two jobs one it prevents the sheet uncleating the guy before one has time to sheet very annoying…
& helps with control of the spinnaker whilst hoisting or gybing by preventing it filling too easily also very annoying…
 
Also two tips:
1) Have a check line on the fin so that prior to putting the pole on one can raise the centreboard to a position where the helm is balanced which makes putting the sheet on the pole & then the pole on the mast a great deal easier… Of course twin poles are much easier in this respect but the longer sheets still very helpful when sailing alone or with inexperienced crew…
2) Have a longer line between the single pole end fitting pistons - this is because otherwise it is all too easy to drop/trip the outboard end when trying to either attach or detach inboard end to mast…

This arrangement allows one to break the spinnaker hoist into separate parts none too dependent on any of the others…

So:
1)	Bear away & raise fin.
2)	Attach spinnaker guy to pole.
3)	Deploy pole.
4)	Twinning lines on/off.
5)	Hoist spinnaker.
6)	Position guy.
7)	Sheet on.

This arrangement helped me sail when I didn’t have a Laser as an alternative & has made sailing with young & inexperienced crews much easier. Hope this is helpful.