furling gear on a gaffcutter

BlackPig

BlackPig

N/A
Joined
28 Mar 2009
Messages
821
www.scottishensign.co.uk
I Have a Wykeham-Martin Furling Gear on my jib, it tightens the bottom section well, but the top does not roll up the top in anything but perfect conditions. Yes, I have the triangle at the top of the halyard. When you need to get rid of the jib IE wind picking up it does not work, you have a flapping bag at the top. Time to give up on it, I think.

Has anyone got a recommendation for one of those new fangled devices with the bar up the luff. What are the problems with one on the end of the bowsprit?

Thanks
Graham
 
No reason in principle why you should not use a reefing system. They have the advantage that you can reduce the sail area rather than furl it away completely, and provide more consistent luff tension. Downsides are cost, weight and difficulty of bringing the bowsprit on board if you do this regularly. The basic Plastimo model will probably be most suitable.
 
There is a method of using two Wykeham-Martin Furling Gears featured in F.B. Cooke's "Cruising Hints" The top swivel is replaced with a drum the lanyard is led to a fair lead fixed the a shroud and down to the deck.
Major Wykeham-Martin's original idea used a piece of lead pipe that was free to travel up and down the shroud to control the wind up, but I would lead the line though a fair lead at the deck and bring it to the line from the lower drum and control them together.
With some careful set up I think it could work quite well.

Here it is from the sixth edition of "Cruising Hints" you may have to increase the page zoom to 150 or 200% to read the text easily.
scan0003.jpg
 
Last edited:
I have tought of getting some plastic pipe and bolt it at the base and top of the Wykeham-Martin Furling Gear. Possably with a slot for the sail, but chafe on sail may be a problem
 
Please forgive me if I'm stating the bleedin' obvious but is it being rotated the right way? It's a long time since I had one of these but it had to be set up so that the lay of the wire luff rope was tightened as the furling line is hauled in.
 
Ahoy!
On my 28 I find that having the top swivel on a Vee arrangement stops the whole lot rotating. Not sure what you have on the 23 but well worth doing if not.
I have a foil on the staysail, would work on the jib but it would be a permanent fixture so not a good idea I think. Regards.
Hopefully you can see the set up here..
5a4cb82e001baa82de38c337e993847e_zpsdea0c55a.jpg
 
Even more bleedin obvious; have you got enough line on the drum?

Are the bearings perhaps "shot" - it is not unknown for bears of little brain to hoist the upper swivel upside down; the ball bearings supplied are not stainless steel, and if this has been done to yours at any point in its life you have your explanation. Moray McPhail at Classic Marine supplies stainless ones, btw...
 
Last edited:
I find you have to let the tension of the jib halyard before trying to furl. I cannot furl in much over a F4 unless I turn downwind and blanket the jib with the main.
 
Yes I have the vee, yes, still line on the drum when the bottom section the very tight up to were the sheets join the sail. I have changed and greased the bearings on the top swivel. I have not thought about turning with the lay of the wire, will check that out. One other factor is the luff wire may be too small.

F4 F5 is when I start to think about furling the jib it is then too late to use the furler and yes tried it sailing down wind. One of the problems I see is I keep the boat (Heard 23) on a mooring buoy, in the past the bow sprit has been broken, I suspect it nose dived on the buoy and snapped. I have since removed the gammon ring and toe rail so it can be lifted or just ride up. I have thought about detaching the jib from the traveler and laying it next to the boom when on the mooring.

Thanks for help and advice.
 
BlackPig said:
Yes I have the vee, yes, still line on the drum when the bottom section the very tight up to were the sheets join the sail. I have changed and greased the bearings on the top swivel. I have not thought about turning with the lay of the wire, will check that out. One other factor is the luff wire may be too small.

F4 F5 is when I start to think about furling the jib it is then too late to use the furler and yes tried it sailing down wind. One of the problems I see is I keep the boat (Heard 23) on a mooring buoy, in the past the bow sprit has been broken, I suspect it nose dived on the buoy and snapped. I have since removed the gammon ring and toe rail so it can be lifted or just ride up. I have thought about detaching the jib from the traveler and laying it next to the boom when on the mooring.

Thanks for help and advice.
Click to expand...

Is your jib more or less the same shape as foeu's jib in his photo in post 6 above?

That is the right shape for a w/m jib. It needs to be pretty much an Isoceles triangle, with the leech and the foot almost the same length.

if the foot is much shorter than the leech, you will have the trouble that you describe.

Old sailmakers used to cut their w/m jibs differently for this reason.
 
Minn, it was interesting to read your comment about the cut of a jib for W-M gear.
I have a furler similar to the black one in my photo and the jib furls easily.
I have found that problems with furling have been with the furling line going through too many guides.
I have a block near the furler and one near the cockpit, this reduces the friction in the line.
 
foeu said:
I had W-M on my previous boat and now have another brand on my present boat.
Click to expand...

Is that a Harken? I have WM on jib but staysail hanked to forestay which is all very traditional but can be awkward to handle and I've been thinking of switching to using another WM on it, as I see lots of other people doing. So far I've been put off by the cost: the WM #2 is about £300 new. I've noticed a few boats with non-WM gear and have been wondering in a vague sort of a way what exactly they were using. Barton sell a drum and swivel that cost about £75, quite a saving over the WM. Ok, not bronze, doesn't look so nice, but not all that noticeable, esp for the staysail.

So far I haven't done anything, mainly have not had time as have been plagued by engine problems and still sorting those out. If your fittings are Harken, they look as if they are actually more expensive than WM, so I wondered whether they were actually better or just what you happen to have. Anyone tried the Barton ones?
 
Hi chal.
That was a generic photo from the web. It's similar to mine which I think is Bamar. The furling gear was installed by the boat builder when I commissioned her. Had it 12 years with no problems.
 
Thanks - I'll take a look (a quick google suggests they are not widely available so probably not a cheap option!)

Nice to see someone else on the forum at this early hour :)
 
The other way, as suggeted by Ed Burnett, is to use a geneker furler. You get a bit more purchase than a WM and they tend to use sligtly thicker line so are a bit more comforatble to use.

Bartels make a nice stainless steel one, however the 6 inch one costs as much as the largest WM, sobering when you realise Bartels are one of the cheaper maufacturers of geneker furlers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top