Chiara’s slave
Well-known member
A lot of racers don’t seem to sheet things in tight enough either. The last inch gets you another degree or so of pointing. The half reefed cruising genoa in 20kn though, barely sheeted, with the fairleads 2ft too far aft is a common sight though. Not sure what they’d think if they watched me put the 24:1 mainsheet on the winch.What is the breaking strain of the outer cover without the core?
Our furling line is 8mm cruising dyneema - with the vast majority of the strength in the core.
But importantly this is in fact a REEFING as well as furling line. Going to windward into 30 knots (or more) breeze, with the jib sheet winched as hard as feasibly possible using both hands, the strain on the furling / reefing line must be enormous. Higher strain than even the 14mm jib sheet. Perhaps the highest loaded running rigging on the boat.
I might consider using a dyneema core only for part of the rope, but never cover only. If it bursts in a strong wind and the jib comes unrolled in 35-40knots then things will be tricky.
NB. The vast majority of cruising boats I see sailing to windward the jib / genoa sheet is too slack in a breeze.