To paraphrase the great American author Mark Twain, “Everybody talks about the spreaders but nobody does anything about them."

Most Snipe sailors will set their spreaders up where their sailmaker’s respective tuning guide recommends, and not think about them as a vital tuning tool at their disposal. So first let’s look at how the adjustments affect sail shape, in order to understand how to best match the expected conditions and an individual’s sailing style.