Furling genoa sleeve

Hi
We have one that came with the Rival 32 we bought in the Netherlands 2 years ago.

Being short I could not easily reach to feed it over the sheets so we had a UV strip put on the genoa and its in the loft unused.

Think it is about 35 to 37ft long but can dig it out and measure if you are interested.
Top of zip may need some TLC.
You can have it if you think it may be useful,
and if you do make use of it stick a donation in an RNLI box.

cheers
neil
 
My laminate jib came without UV strip and I was advised to cover it. I have used this regularly now for several years and there are certain problems relating to its use.

One difficulty is the amount of friction involved with the tensioning line as it runs through a large number of eyes. The sleeve must be laced tight or the flogging in anything of a wind has to be seen to be believed. One way round the friction problem is to do what I do, which is to lace the sleeve in two (or even three) sections. Even so, I sometimes find it hard to tighten, especially if a twist developes in the line. The cloth mine is made from is too heavy and I have seen others, mostly abroad, that seem easier to manage.

There is something of a knack in putting a sleeve up and lowering it, especially when it is windy. Generally we do it as a pair, since my halyard is led aft to the cockpit. I once saw a chap raise his by halyard winch while standing at the bow feeding the sleeve on. In fact, lowering is harder, as the tight line can make it hard to pull the sleeve down as only a few feet of zip can be loosened at a time.

Generally speaking, a jib cover can be well worthwhile, and keeps the jib clean. Care needs to be taken if motoring around with the cover up as the extra windage can be significant.
 
The Guys down at Aurun sails have made mine for various boats that I have owned over the years, good quality at a good price, I agree with all the other statements about windage etc, but I think sials look so much better without a sacrificail strip.... so I'd always go for the sock, When it's really blowing and the sock is up I often run a line round the furllered and covered up sail back to the mast and put a bit of pressure on it. saves a lot of movement.
 
A nearby boat has one and only peeves me off during high winds as it flaps about. Too many eyes to be tightened correctly at the top. Get a good UV strip instead. GL:D
 
Who'd have a sleeve with eyes anyway, sounds like a lot of extra bother. Mine has a zip. As you pull the spinny halyard up, you pull the zip down. Eezy Peezy and quick, and doesn't flog. If the sleeve is oversize and might be prone to flog, then I suppose some sail ties at intervals would help matters.

Tim
 
Monique said:
A nearby boat has one and only peeves me off during high winds as it flaps about. Too many eyes to be tightened correctly at the top. Get a good UV strip instead. GL:D
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A boat on our pontoon has just sprouted a cover and it was fairly noisy even in a modest wind. Not as bad as a halyard flapping against a mast, but irritating all the same.
 
Alfie168 said:
Who'd have a sleeve with eyes anyway, sounds like a lot of extra bother. Mine has a zip. As you pull the spinny halyard up, you pull the zip down. Eezy Peezy and quick, and doesn't flog. If the sleeve is oversize and might be prone to flog, then I suppose some sail ties at intervals would help matters.

Tim
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Who made yours Tim. And how do you keep the materail taut all the way down the luff?
 
Lady Campanula said:
I don't see many of these around 'UK-south' waters; they seem rather more common in northern France.

I'd like to get/make one for a 37'6" luff, as I have a volume of suitable (?) ripstop nylon. Any experience/ideas/concerns to pass on?

:)
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I have one for my Dragonfly trimeringue. Laminate sail with no UV strip, so it is necessary. The first came with the boat but it has just been replaced. I made the latest one myself with an ordinary domestic sewing machine. Mine is about 11m long.

Sourcing the zip can be tricky. Hawke House are the only seller I know who sell zips this long one off retail. Mine sleeve is made from Sunbrella. I personally would not use ripstop because it is thin and will wear, not good at shielding UV, and is slippery stuff to sew.

I have a 3mm tensioning line that goes through fittings (that I can't name) going up the sleeve. They came off the old sleeve. One side of the line zig-zags up, the other goes straight up and round a small pulley. That way by pulling both ends I can tension from the top and bottom. Not had any flogging damage yet. The tensioning line does not cross the zip so no re-threading each time.

If you are reasonably handy with a sewing machine it's an easy, if long, item to make. Only point to watch is that the zip lines up each side; pin it first and it will be fine.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
Who made yours Tim. And how do you keep the materail taut all the way down the luff?
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I've just spent the last hour looking for it as its at home waiting a new zip (its done nearly ten years)...but SWMBO has put it 'somewhere safe' and I can't put my hands on it. It has a makers label but its probably no help as it was made in Bavaria as my boat came from the Chiemzee.

Taut down the luff ?...well all I do is furl the genny as normal, then detach the genny sheet and tie off the clew round itself with a short length of rope, so that keeps the genny wrapped tight-ish, then attach the spinnaker halyard to a loop in the top of the sock, zip as you haul it up, tie off the spinny halyard and then tension the lot..but not too hard.. using another loop at the base of the sock with some rope through it, through a shackle at the base of the forestay. My sock is quite a snug fit, so it sits quite nicely in blowy weather.

Tim
 
I've used one on a 36ft luff for 10 years now .... bought it from Compass who, I think, still market them. Good piece of kit with a robust zip and and a draw string that runs through small blocks with pretty well nil friction. The material is also 'slippy' so pulls over sail/sheets easily. Not cheap but saved having uv strips which keep falling to bits, and keeps the sail cleaner. I only use it when I leave the boat and not when cruising. It would be a bit finnicky to use every day.
 
Many thanks to all for your input - and especially to 'neilandshiv' whose unused sleeve will now have a second life on a very similar boat.

:)


Edit: More info. The boat lives on a fore-and-aft mooring which is fairly open to the west, and it may be that no-one will board her from one week to the next. 'Getting out of the starting blocks' and away quickly is not likely to be an issue for some months - the task is protection. The genoa has a UV strip which already has a couple of tears, repaired with spinnaker/gaffer tape, and at some point I'll spend some money getting the sail fettled. But not right now.

A sleeve seems to offer the needed weather protection, so I'll give it a try.
 
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The sail maker recommended a 'sail sock' for the genoa as he also thought UV strips look ugly. I went along with it as in the Baltic I rarely saw these things on anything other than kewl looking boats....! I soon hated it. I have (had? sale going through hopefully as we speak!) a 13.5metre luff on the Genny and the time it took to put the damn thing on and off soon had me trotting orf to the local sailmaker to have a UV strip put on. Mine has a zip but also two tiers of laces which when raising need to be tightened as you go as best you can. If you don't make a good job of making it tight it flogs and as mine did, sprouted a few holes where it did so. Pulling it down is also a pain as if you did make a good job of it you have to almost hang off it to get it down. Ok, I used to put it up and down alone but in my opinion that makes no difference........it still delays leaving the marina on average a half hour. Yes, you can do it under way but then the motion, the additional wind and being alone make it stressy. The major issue though is water can get in at the top but cannot really evaporate successfully when it warms up. I had mould on my sails after the first season! Ok, my boat sits there with very little use most of the summer but on my old sail with a UV strip....no mould! The sailmaker sewed a bag onto the inside of the cover so when down it folded into itself for stowing. However, it is just another thing to find a stowage space for otherwise it tends to bunk hop around the boat as you relax at different times of day. If you have a UV strip already then use the material to make something useful like bung bags!
 
We fitted one because despite having a UV strip, it's white and being downwind of Southampton water it gets quite dirty quite quickly. Not only does the sock keep it clean, but the life of the UV strip should be greatly extended too. SWMBO madethe sock and it works a treat on a 11.7m luff; its a full length zip and is hoisted on the spinnaker halyard. To stop it flapping - and it doesn't flap even in 35kts of wind - she fitted lacing which passes through SS D rings spaced about a meter apart (on the opposite side to the zip). The use of SS protects against UV degradation of the plastic ones and reduces the friction when bowsing it down tight. The zips incidentally, are available from Kayospruce (near Fareham) as well as Hawkehouse as mentioned elsewhere. I woudn't be tempted to use rip-stop, partly because I think it would degrade too quickly and partly because I think it would be very noisy.

With hindsight, the only improvement we'd make would be to have zippers from both ends so that a gap can be left where the sheets attach to the clew. On ours, we run the sheets to the bottom of the sock. If you're anywhere near us, you're welcome to have a look.

Whoops! It took me so long to complete my post (work got in the way :) ) that I was overtaken by events. Hope your'new' sock is successful!
 
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