Furling gear for a cruising chute

[Badger]

Someone showed me something in a Harken catalogue the other day which looked quite interesting. Rather than using a snuffer on your cruising chute/Gennaker etc, they have produced a portable furling drum with a snap shackle on the bottom to attach it to the deck and a roller thingy for the top of the sail. Apparently Barlow are doing them as well.

I'm not sure exactly how they work but has anyone tried this concept out yet ?

 

[Celena]

We've used a Rotofurl with our Genoa (set loose-luffed as we have a cutter rig with a Yankee fitted to a furler on the forestay) and it works well. Our intention is to get a mpg this year to complement our cc and part company with the Genoa. You can't use it for reefing, of course. I don't think it would work too well with a cc as I think the head of the cc is much fuller and would probably wrap round the top swivel. Others might disagee of course. I suppose we could try it with our cc but we normally launch this straight out of the bag.

 

[jamesjermain]

I have used one a couple of times with a cruising chute/asymetric spinnaker. It worked brilliantly and made the whole job so much easier. It beats a snuffer hands down. The configuration is quite common on multihulls for setting powerful, light wind reaching sails. However, there are considerations...

The sails i have used have been fairly flat cut. It may well be that with a fuller sail - particularly in the head - it would not roll well, or even at all.

I am not absolutely certain how good it is for the sail to be tightly rolled (possibly when wet) then stuffed in a coil into a damp locker.

The sail cannot be reefed but that is not usually a requirement of chutes and gennikers

That said I am very tempted to go down this road for my own boat. I would go for a light to medium wind sail which would draw well from about 50 degrees round to 120 degrees (apparent) and couild even be squeezed up to 40 degrees in really light conditions.

Elvstrom do a very good asymetric design specially for roller furling and I suspect most of the other large sail makers do the same.



JJ

 

[spark]

Sounds to me like good old-fashioned Wyckham Martin furling gear which has been available for the last 100 years or so. Popular for jibs tacked out on the end of long bowsprits. You can get a nice polished gunmetal set from Davey & Co.

 

[Micaro]

Doyle Sails at Shamrock Quay made me a gennaker (they call it a UPS) which furls up onto a Facnor 1000SDG continuous-line furling gear. What's more they did it in three weeks from date of order in May this year. (Last-minute decision after much humming and haaing on my part). My boat is a Nic 35, which while exemplary in most respects, can be a bit tedious in light airs. I can honestly say that this sail has transformed the boat's performance in up to 15/16 knots apparent. It is simplicity itself to set up/take down (although I leave mine up (furled) most of the time), it furls/unfurls easily, sets beautifully and really pulls well. To tack or gybe, it's as easy to roll it up and unroll it again as anything else. In three months in Western France this year I didn't touch my (admittedly old) cruising chute/snuffer once and more than halved the time spent motoring. Significantly, you see a lot of these furling gennakers on French boats nowadays. Talk to Daryl Morgan at Doyle. I have no connection with them at all other than as a happy customer. E-mail me if you want some more info.