ATN Spinnaker Sleeve — The Original Spinnaker Sock

The Origin Story

Why Etienne Built It - 1985

It was in 1985, while preparing for the 86/87 BOC Challenge that Etienne realized no reliable spinnaker dousing sock existed. Not from Doyle. Not from North Sails. Not from any of the major sailmakers. Etienne Giroire - French sailor, Maxi boat skipper, offshore navigator who had crossed paths with the world's best skippers - had seen the problem from the foredeck: the spinnaker is easy to hoist and dangerous to take down. Crews got hurt. Sails got destroyed. Even the top solo skippers did not have a tool that worked.

"It's there that I discovered that all the spinnaker sleeves that even the top skippers had didn't work at all. Not even the ones made by Doyle, North Sails and such. There was nothing safe on the market and I saw an opportunity there."

The ATN Spinnaker Sleeve was his answer. He designed every element from the ground up: the hoop, the mesh body, the control-line channel, the visual feedback for twists, the pennant at the head. Forty years later, the design is the standard every subsequent sock has tried to copy.

The Racing Pedigree

For longer-distance shorthanded ocean races with boats 36 feet and up, the majority to vast majority of the fleet carries at least one ATN Spinnaker Sleeve. Every winner of the Vendée Globe - solo nonstop around-the-world racing's most demanding event - has carried an ATN Sleeve since the inaugural 1989 race. The vast majority of winners of the Atlantic Cup carry one. The majority of winners of the Transat Jacques Vabre, The Transat (formerly OSTAR), Bermuda 1-2, Singlehanded Transpac, Newport Bermuda Doublehanded, & Round Britain and Ireland carry one. On the Route du Rhum, the majority of winners carry one. Approximately 90% of Class 40 boats and the IMOCA 60 fleet carry one. The 2023 Transpac Race overall winner flew their spinnaker with an ATN Sleeve. Etienne himself won the Class 4 of the OSTAR race in 1992 using his own sleeve on his 40 ft Walter Greene trimaran *Up My Sleeve*. Essentially everyone sailing the Global Solo Challenge had the ATN Sleeve onboard (ATN was a sponsor of this race in 2023/2024 - Cole Brauer carried the ATN MastClimber in addition to the ATN Spinnaker Sleeve).

Forty Years of Continuous Refinement

The DNA of the 1985 design is intact: unique oval shaping, the dedicated control-line side sleeve, dual-color twist detection, dual-diameter control line. What has evolved is the engineering of the parts that wear under load. The mouth hoop progressed to today's two variants - Hard fiberglass for the heritage Original (up to 52 ft only now) Hoop and the new Soft Hoop; developed to be lighter, unbreakable & carbon mast friendly. The Pennant at the head of the sail has been redesigned twice since the original and is now a single-piece Dyneema solution made in the USA. 33,000+ Sleeves have been manufactured to date. They sail in 40+ countries. The next one ATN makes will be built to the same standard.

The ATN Design Standard: What Etienne Invented in 1985

Etienne's Original ATN Spinnaker Sleeve design solved a set of problems that no one else had cracked, and his solutions became the benchmark every subsequent design has tried to copy. Here is what he originated:

Etienne's own description, from his Global Solo Challenge interview, April 2021: "What I did is I created a side sleeve along the main sleeve which contains the control line which is a closed loop... I had solved the problem of the line tangling up with the sail as they couldn't touch each other." Read on Global Solo Challenge

5Modern Refinement: The Pennant - Three Generations

The Pennant is the soft attachment at the head of the spinnaker, between the sail head and the masthead halyard. It is essentially an extension of the halyard that is necessary to create the space where the sleeved-up ATN Sleeve will rest.

ATN has redesigned the Pennant twice since the original. The current generation ships on every new Sleeve.

Generation 1 1985 to ~2014

Rigid stainless steel bar with stainless swivels. Strong, simple, but heavy aloft and a potential wear point on sailcloth.

Generation 2 ~2014 to ~2025

Two-piece Dyneema Pennant with a Softie. Reduced weight aloft and eliminated the metal-on-cloth wear point.

Generation 3 (current) ~2025 to present

Single-piece Dyneema Softie with dog bone. Improved simplicity, faster hookup at the masthead, fewer parts to inspect. Made in USA. Ships on every new Sleeve.

Generation 3 Pennant: single-piece Dyneema Softie with dog bone.

Older Sleeves can be retrofitted with the current Pennant or fully modernized to current Soft Hoop standards in the ATN Pinellas Park shop. See the Refurbishment section below.

How the Spinnaker Sleeve Works

The ATN Spinnaker Sleeve is a fabric tube - sized to your spinnaker's leech - that keeps the sail contained and under control during the entire hoist and douse. It makes spinnaker handling easier & safer.

You hoist the spinnaker fully captured within the sleeve. When you are ready, a single control line raises the sleeve to the masthead, releasing the sail cleanly into full flying shape. To douse, pull the other side of the control line (it's a closed loop) - the sleeve slides down over the sail, controlling it instantly. The sail is ready to hoist again immediately. When in the sleeve the spinnaker is always ready to be set.

ATN's hoop design prevents the sleeve from collapsing or jamming, which is a unique feature designed by ATN. The mesh body was intentionally chosen for low friction, reduced windage, and improved sail drying.

For control-line dousing technique, Steve Dashew's Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia recommends running the downhaul through a snatch block on the foredeck and back to a winch or cleat. This is the technique ATN endorses for boats larger than approximately 50 feet. For mechanical advantage on the dousing pull, ATN offers a ratchet block - the ATN SnapRatchet - designed specifically for the Sleeve's control line which allows one to better control it - even from a seated position.

• Works on any free luff sail - symmetric and asymmetric spinnakers, cruising chutes, gennakers, screechers, MPS, APC, and mizzenstaysails
• ATN Original hoop design - will not collapse or jam
• Single-handed douse in under 60 seconds
• No hardware changes to your rig required
• Sized to your leech length
• Available for boats from 24 ft to 148 ft leech
• Made in USA

The Standard in Offshore Racing

"To this day, every winner of the Vendée Globe Race has carried the ATN spinnaker sleeve."

For longer-distance shorthanded ocean races with boats 36 feet and up, the majority to vast majority of the fleet carries at least one ATN Spinnaker Sleeve.

Widely used in: RORC Fastnet IRC Two-Handed; Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC); World ARC; Salty Dawg Rally; NARC.

"I always used and trusted ATN Spinnaker Sleeves, back then and later around the world. There's no point considering anything else - they are the only and best and do their job just when the going gets rough!"

Etienne developed the Soft variant specifically for the elite end of this market. From his Global Solo Challenge interview: "I am now manufacturing the new SOFT ATN spinnaker sleeve Hoop. I developed it for the Vendée Globe competitors and the mega yachts: it is a hoop that is unbreakable, smooth, and light." Read on Global Solo Challenge

For asymmetric spinnaker handling without a pole, the ATN Tacker is the companion product carried by many cruisers around the world.

2023 Transpac Race overall winner, flying the spinnaker with an ATN Sleeve.

Etienne delivering a Sleeve to Loick Peyron on Happy ahead of the Route du Rhum.

Two Variants: Hard Sleeve and Soft Sleeve

The ATN Spinnaker Sleeve is available in two variants. Both share the same DNA - the unique oval shape, the mesh sock body, the dual-color twist detection, the dual-diameter control line, and the modern Pennant design. They differ in the hoop design and construction.