Headsail furling vs reefing

[tomdmx]

A little while ago I bought a s/s wykeham martin type furling gear which is engineered without the bearings so not much to go wrong...so I'm wondering if its true that a furler cannot be used to reef (at least roll up half the sail etc)...does anyone have any experience in this? I heard about using a double luff wire which was not good for bearing based systems but I don't have any bearings...in any case I'm not sure how to install this..or how it works....

 

[William_H]

Roller reefing

The loads on the reefing gear are huge when you have some rolls in the jib and are beating to windward. You need to crank the jib sheet on hard to get the pointing ability. Hopefully the sheeting point will be correct so that pull is mainly even from top to bottom of the luff. Any uneven pull will tend to untwist the rolls either from bottom or top.
I think that if you try to use a furler for reefing ie use the sail partly furled you will find it may be oK in gentle breezes off the wind but when you try to beat into the wind the jib will lose its shape and pointing the boat will be hopeless. My guess but I wouldn't know I would never have anything but correct jib hanked on. For the above reasons.olewill

 

[prv]

I have a traditional wykeham-martin on my jib (modern roller on the staysail). I've never tried using the sail with it half-rolled, but I think if I did the middle and top of the sail would unroll, the bottom part would stay rolled, and the whole thing would be scrunched horribly out of shape. I guess in extremis it might even tear.

Pete

 

[Tranona]

As its name implies, furling gear does just that. Furls the sail. Not designed for reefing. Commonly used on small boats and dinghies, or as with Pete on a cutter rig where the first reef is to remove the jib.

 

[Lakesailor]

Yes, I had the Barton system (which does have bearings) but would only have used it half furled in a light breeze, when I wouldn't have needed to reef anyway.
It's a great system for small boats, but wrapping around it's own luff wire the sail would be very stressed under any kind of wind.