6 min read · Updated 19 May 2026
A spinnaker hoist sets the large downwind sail at the top of a run, and a spinnaker drop takes it back down before the boat turns upwind — and on a grand prix race track, how cleanly a crew does both often decides the result. A botched hoist costs seconds of boat speed at the windward mark; a slow or tangled drop can stop the boat dead at the leeward mark while rivals sail past. The string drop, also called a retrieval-line or letterbox drop, is the technique top crews rely on to get the kite down fast and under control, and it is the standard takedown aboard a Melges 40 like Invicta.
What a hoist and drop are, and why they decide races
Downwind, a racing yacht swaps its upwind headsail for a far larger, lighter sail — a spinnaker or, on modern boats, an asymmetric gennaker — to capture much more wind and accelerate away. The hoist is the manoeuvre that raises this sail and fills it; the drop is the manoeuvre that collapses and recovers it before the next upwind leg. Because the sail is enormous and powerful, both transitions happen in a narrow window right at a mark, with the boat turning and other yachts close aboard.
The stakes are simple. Carrying the spinnaker for longer means more time at higher speed, so crews try to hoist the instant they bear away and drop at the last safe moment before they round up. A drop that goes wrong — the sail in the water, a halyard snagged, a corner not released — turns into a boat-stopping trawl that bleeds boat lengths. This is why drop technique is drilled as hard as any manoeuvre in grand prix yacht racing.
The hoist
A good hoist is fast and quiet. The sail is pre-packed and hooked on while the boat is still upwind, with halyard, sheet and — on an asymmetric — the tack line led and ready. As the boat bears away around the windward mark, the bow crew calls the hoist, the halyard is sweated up hand over hand to full hoist, and the trimmer sheets on so the sail fills as it reaches the top. On an asymmetric boat the tack is pulled out to the end of the bowsprit at the same time, projecting the sail clear of the rig. Timing matters — hoist too early and the sail fills against the headsail; too late and the boat coasts without power. The headsail then comes down and the crew settles into the run.
The drop types, including the string drop
There are several recognised ways to take a spinnaker down, and the right one depends on the wind, the sea state and which way the boat will turn:
- Windward drop — the sail is gathered to windward, behind the mainsail, and pulled down on the windward side. Clean and well shielded, but it needs the kite blanketed by the main.
- Leeward drop — the sail comes down on the leeward side. The simplest option when the boat reaches into a mark and cannot get the sail behind the main, though the sail is more exposed to the breeze.
- Mexican drop (Kiwi drop) — the crew drops and gybes simultaneously so the kite finishes on the new windward side, shielded by the main. Favoured in light to medium air when gybing at the mark.
- Float drop — the halyard is eased so the sail floats out ahead of the boat on the sheets before being gathered in; useful for keeping the sail out of the water in a breeze.
- String drop — the kite is pulled down by a retrieval line sewn to a patch in the belly of the sail.
In a string drop the crew first blows the corners — easing or releasing the sheet so the sail depowers — and then hauls the retrieval line, which collapses the sail from its middle and drags it down through a foredeck hatch or below the boom. The letterbox variant runs that retrieval line through the slot between the foot of the mainsail and the top of the boom, so the main completely blankets the kite as it comes in and the boom adds purchase if the sail loads up. The tack or tack line is released last, only once most of the sail is safely below, because letting it go early risks dropping the sail in the water. Done well, a string drop lets the crew carry the kite deep into the rounding and recover it in seconds — the speed and control that make it the buoy-racing favourite.
Who does what
A drop is choreography, and every crew position has a job in the sequence — covered in detail in our guide to yacht racing crew positions. The trimmer eases and then blows the sheet so the sail depowers on cue. The pit eases the halyard at a controlled rate so the sail comes down as fast as the bow crew can gather it, not faster. The bow and mast crew haul the retrieval line and feed the sail down the hatch, calling when the tack can finally be released. The afterguard calls the line into the mark and the moment of the drop, balancing speed against the risk of going late. When the timing between these roles is sharp, the boat stays at full pace until the turn — see our overview of the sails of a grand prix yacht for how the kite fits into the wider sail wardrobe.
How it applies on a Melges 40
The Melges 40 is built for exactly this kind of high-speed downwind work, and the string drop is its everyday takedown. The boat flies a large asymmetric gennaker tacked to a retractable bowsprit rather than a symmetric spinnaker on a pole, so the sail is set well forward of the bow and trimmed like an oversized reaching sail — you can read more about the platform on the Invicta boat page and about its sail inventory in the sails of a grand prix yacht guide. Because the gennaker is big, fast and tacked to the sprit, the crew retrieves it on a retrieval line down a foredeck hatch, blowing the sheet, hauling the kite in behind the main, and retracting the bowsprit and releasing the tack line as the last steps. On the boat's home east-coast circuit out of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, where leeward marks come up fast in a breeze, a crisp string drop is one of the clearest marks of a well-drilled crew.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a string drop in sailing?
- A string drop is a spinnaker takedown where the crew releases the corners of the sail and uses a retrieval line — the string — sewn to a patch in the belly of the kite to haul it down through a hatch or below the boom. It is one of the fastest ways to get the spinnaker off the boat at a mark rounding, which is why grand prix crews favour it for buoy racing.
- What is the difference between a string drop and a letterbox drop?
- Both use a retrieval line, but a letterbox drop specifically pulls the sail down through the gap — the letterbox — between the top of the boom and the foot of the mainsail, so the main shields the kite from the wind. A string drop is the broader term for any retrieval-line takedown, and on boats with a forward hatch the sail often comes down in front of the rig rather than through the letterbox.
- Why do racing crews drop the spinnaker so close to the mark?
- Every metre sailed under spinnaker is faster than sailing under white sails alone, so crews carry the kite as deep into the rounding as they safely can. A late, clean drop keeps boat speed high right up to the mark and sets up a tight, fast turn onto the next leg, which can be worth several boat lengths over a race.
- What is a Mexican or Kiwi drop?
- A Mexican drop, also called a Kiwi drop, is a takedown where the crew drops the spinnaker and gybes at the same time so the sail ends up on the new windward side, shielded by the mainsail. It lets the boat carry the kite right into a gybe-set rounding and is common in lighter air when the boat changes tack at the mark.
- Does a Melges 40 use a string drop?
- Yes. The Melges 40 flies a large asymmetric gennaker tacked to a retractable bowsprit, and crews retrieve it with a retrieval line down a foredeck hatch in a style of string drop. The asymmetric shape and the bowsprit make a controlled retrieval-line takedown the standard technique at leeward marks.