Dousing a spinnaker with a snuffer sock before a squall arrives

When a rain cloud looks like it might bring wind, the right move is to get the spinnaker down before the gust hits rather than after. A snuffer sock (also called a spinnaker sock) makes this manageable for a solo sailor: you pull down the retrieval control line to collapse and sleeve the sail from the head down, containing it before it can load up in a sudden breeze. On this passage the wind picked up almost immediately after the sail was doused, confirming the timing was right. Bringing a spinnaker down in rising wind is always harder than bringing it down in light air.