Conversion of a snuffer cruising chute to a furling cruising chute

[Ric]

I currently have a fairly crappy Hong Kong Sails cruising chute with snuffer. I say crappy, because the snuffer is is a pain to deploy, but once up the sail does its job and I am not racing anybody so am happy with the overall cut and set of the sail. However, I would maybe like to convert it to one of these new spangly furly jobs, as they seem like they are much easier to deploy etc for a gin&tonic sailor like me. and I suspect I would get a lot more use out of it if it could be deployed just by twiddling on a couple of ropes from the cockpit as on the various marketing-wallah videos that I can see on youtube.

But are they all as tally-ho as cracked up on the youtube videos? Can I convert my cheapo existing sail to a furling system? I've done my googling and some sources say a vintage cruising chute can be converted just by buying an extremely expensive furler, others say that I have to buy an extremely expensive furler AND sew in some sort of patch to my existing sail, and yet others say that I have to buy an extremely expensive curler, throw away my perfectly good sail, and buy another sail from the furler manufacturer.

So who is correct?

 

[cliff]

I currently have a fairly crappy Hong Kong Sails cruising chute with snuffer. I say crappy, because the snuffer is is a pain to deploy, but once up the sail does its job and I am not racing anybody so am happy with the overall cut and set of the sail. However, I would maybe like to convert it to one of these new spangly furly jobs, as they seem like they are much easier to deploy etc for a gin&tonic sailor like me. and I suspect I would get a lot more use out of it if it could be deployed just by twiddling on a couple of ropes from the cockpit as on the various marketing-wallah videos that I can see on youtube.

But are they all as tally-ho as cracked up on the youtube videos? Can I convert my cheapo existing sail to a furling system? I've done my googling and some sources say a vintage cruising chute can be converted just by buying an extremely expensive furler, others say that I have to buy an extremely expensive furler AND sew in some sort of patch to my existing sail, and yet others say that I have to buy an extremely expensive curler, throw away my perfectly good sail, and buy another sail from the furler manufacturer.

So who is correct?

The last one "yet others say that I have to buy an extremely expensive curler, throw away my perfectly good sail, and buy another sail from the furler manufacturer" though the new sail could be purchased from an equally expensive sail maker.

 

[Ian_Edwards]

Hi,
I've recently done some research on furlers. I have a genneker on a conventional furler and a cruising chute on a snuffer. As you say the snuffer is a real pain if you are short handed and the furler, works sometimes. By this I mean that unless the wind is really light when you the furl the sail the top of the sail "bags" and doesn't furl.

The answer seems to be a top down furler. It looks like you can use your existing sail, but you'll need a new Torque Rope and furling system.

In essence, when you spin the furling drum in the usual way, the rotation is transferred to the top of the sail by the torque rope, which needs to be set-up really tight for the system to work.

The furling drum needs an additional swivel, to allow tack of the sail, not to rotate as you wind up the torque rope. I needed to think about this bit to sort out in my mind how it all works.

I've just ordered one from Owen Sails, and I hope it'll be delivered in the next week or so I can try it out before the boat is laid-up for the winter.

 

[knuterikt]

I currently have a fairly crappy Hong Kong Sails cruising chute with snuffer. I say crappy, because the snuffer is is a pain to deploy, but once up the sail does its job and I am not racing anybody so am happy with the overall cut and set of the sail. However, I would maybe like to convert it to one of these new spangly furly jobs, as they seem like they are much easier to deploy etc for a gin&tonic sailor like me. and I suspect I would get a lot more use out of it if it could be deployed just by twiddling on a couple of ropes from the cockpit as on the various marketing-wallah videos that I can see on youtube.
But are they all as tally-ho as cracked up on the youtube videos?

I have sailed with the Facnor AFX system for some years now and I would not go back to a snuffer.

Can I convert my cheapo existing sail to a furling system? I've done my googling and some sources say a vintage cruising chute can be converted just by buying an extremely expensive furler, others say that I have to buy an extremely expensive furler AND sew in some sort of patch to my existing sail, and yet others say that I have to buy an extremely expensive curler, throw away my perfectly good sail, and buy another sail from the furler manufacturer.

So who is correct?

There are two different type of systems that can be used to furl a full asymmetric sail (cruising chute).
Both systems use a torque rope to wind the sail onto
1)One type uses a thin dyneema line (central furling line) attached to the middle of the luff going into the torque rope so the sail is furled mid luff first (you would need a small reinforcement added to the mid luff
2)The other type is the top down type, here the torque rope start furling at the top of the sail going down

When you read about special sails I think this must be furlers without the torque rope, since these can only be used with flatter sails.

I have type 1 from Facnor, so this is the type I have experience with.
The reinforcement at the luff should not cost much to do.
It's easier to use than a snuffer and I can furl from the cockpit
I don't leave the sail hoisted in furled state for long - as the leach can start fluttering
It's easy to hoist and take down the furled sail and it's easy to bag.

I have been thinking to convert mine to a top down temporarily (by disabling the top swivel) so I can compare both designs.

You can see the central furling line and torque rope in this pic, the diameter of the torque rope is increased where the line winds onto the torque rope.