How To Do a Mexican Takedown Also Called the Kiwi Drop

UK Sailmakers
UK Sailmakers
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Published 2023-07-05
The best way to pass boats when rounding a leeward mark to port is to do a Mexican takedown. The Mexican allows you to carry the spinnaker right into the rounding while also preventing the sail from falling into the water. You’ll be the inside right-of-way boat, entitled to mark room over boats doing leeward takedowns. Here’s how to do it:

Going into the turn, the spinnaker is over trimmed pulling the foot right up to the deck. As the driver does the smooth left turn, this well-choreographed sailing ballet results in the spinnaker inverting and now laying on the new windward side of the jib. Here are the “steps:”

1. The bow team grabs the foot of the spinnaker as it collapses onto the windward side of the jib,
2. The pit person smokes the halyard,
3. As the sail slides down the jib onto the deck, the bow team gathers it in,
4. The pit person then blows the tack line, and
5. The sail gets stuffed down the forward hatch with at least three quarters of the sail on the deck before going upwind.
All Comments (6)
  • @kryssbow-sr3hz
    I'm Australian, Kiwi is slang here for New Zealand. Most of us living on the East coast with NZ to the South East it's likely a similar geographical reference. My skipper jokes it's called a Kiwi drop because if you stuff it up NZ is where the boat ends up 😂
  • @user-dn6ij2bt8r
    This is a "gybe douse". Re the name "Mexican", I had always understood it was from the Newport to Ensenada race. For decades, the finish line was at the entrance to Ensenada harbor*, and if you didn't douse and gybe ~immediately~, you often had an unpleasant windward return exactly when you wanted to be DONE already. So, the gybe-douse maneuver was widely associated to that locale. (* changed to closer to The Coral now)
  • @user-yw6nc8mt6y
    we just used to call it 'a windward drop' often praticed for when it it would be useful
  • @atakd
    How does this not foul the kite on the spreaders?