How do genoas unfurl on their own?

C

Crinan12

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 Mar 2019
Messages
606
Visit site
Quite often see a Facebook post or whatever saying something along the lines off 'so and so' s boats jib has unfurled and is flapping about on its mooring'

This is def the sort of thing that will happen to me given me ability to make a mess of pretty much everything

So how does it happen? Surely if you cleat the jib sheets and the furling line it cant unfurl? I put a bungee round my jib as well. Is there other things one should do?

Are there people out there even more hopeless than me?
 
Crinan12 said:
Quite often see a Facebook post or whatever saying something along the lines off 'so and so' s boats jib has unfurled and is flapping about on its mooring'

This is def the sort of thing that will happen to me given me ability to make a mess of pretty much everything

So how does it happen? Surely if you cleat the jib sheets and the furling line it cant unfurl? I put a bungee round my jib as well. Is there other things one should do?

Are there people out there even more hopeless than me?
Click to expand...
It's those pesky sea pixies.
Took the dinghy out to a boat whos genoa was flogging itself to death in a F6. Not even a thank you from the owner, last time I do that for him.

I prefer a sail tie to a bungee.
 
Clearly there are people more hopeless than you if you have seen a flogging genoa that has furled. I always tie a line around the furled genoa when leaving the boat. Usually a reef knot and a re-useable cable tie.
And I always UNTIE it before setting off. The engine failed once and by being able to unfurl some of the foresail I had steerage and avoided hitting a lot of boats.
 
nearby boat to us was upping and downing roller headsail last week, then it was taken away and returned with an added foot strop, followed by more upping and downing and much twisting of reefing drum and poking of contained line. next time I looked the boat had been left with hoisted sail rolled but with clew still out and no attached sheets. Cue later wind gusts and partially unwrapped sail in hourglass formation, flapping and banging like mad. Called marina staff who had a look see and apparently called the long gone owners. They got away seemingly with no/little damage but somebody arrived net morning, removed sail and dumped it in the cockpit. later noticed it sitting on foredeck neatly folded like a sailmaker would.

No unless personally known to me no way would I climb on board and risk damage to me or a strangers boat.

Similar vein there is a lovely classic boat nearby that just leaves a newish looking main sitting 24/7 with the stakpak fully open even with recent wall to wall sunshine. Must either be very rich or a sailmaker.
 
Never actually seen - but what I believe happens is the furling line chafes through at some point.

Three lines of defence are IMHO:
  • put a sail tie around the clew as you said
  • release the tension in the furling line
  • ensure there's a turn or two left on the furling line (when furled) so the load is spread around the drum - and doesn't all go on the rather sharp-edged hole for the stopper knot which is the obvious chafe point
How many boats do you see without a sail-tie at the clew? On anything over 40 foot, it tends to be out of reach and require acrobatics on the pulpit.
 
Sailors divide into two camps. One knows it happens and take every precaution to prevent it and tell sailors in the other camp that their jib might unfurl to looks of incredulity and comments that it can't possibly happen.

Needless to say I've see many unfurled and destroyed jibs and masts and even boats. It does happen, they don't unfurl on their own, it's the power of the wind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RJJ
I'm on board 24/7 and have dealt with several as best I could in storms at our marina. More often than not the cause has been the furling line not having been cleated off properly. A few turns of the sheets around the sail & a cleated off furling line has always been sufficient to prevent mine from unfurling...
 
Day to day I wind loads of sheet around the furled sail. I put a gasket or two on and wind the spinnaker halyard around the sail in the opposite direction to the furl if a storm is expected. If two or more storms or a hurricane are expected I take the headsail off.

The failure mode I've seen most often is where there are no turns left on the drum and the furling line breaks at the stopper knot
 
As a precaution I always take a line from the tack fitting on the drum to an adjacent hard point. In my case, the pulpit. This effectively prevents the drum from rotating, regardless of what else might be going on.

Mike
 
I always use a Karabiner (or Carbine Hook) which is tied on a short a piece of string to the pulpit and clipped to the furler; it takes seconds to clip on and never gets released accidentally.
 
To my mind, the trick is to make sure it's furled as tightly as I can and have a few turns of the sheets around the furled sail, then cleat furling line and both sheets off properly.

If there's a real blow coming and it's already too windy to take the genny off, I have been known to wrap a spare halliard round it top to bottom, but I suspect that a genny that doesn't unravel but still flogs was on its last legs anyway.
 
Crinan12 said:
So how does it happen? Surely if you cleat the jib sheets and the furling line it cant unfurl?
Click to expand...
Either the furling line snaps or comes off the cleat, or it just stretches allowing a bit of the clew to unfurl. The added flogging of the latter probably contributes to the former.
 
I suspect if the sheets aren't allowed two or three wraps around the sail and then cinched tight vibrations can loosen the knots at the clew or at the cleats, and then, loosened, it begins to flog and gets worse quickly.
My Yankee has a clew so high there is no way to get close to it when furled so if I feel the need for extra security I spiral the spinny halyard around the sail as many times as it will let me, opposite handed to the furl of the sail. Thus if the sail tries to unfurl the spinny halyard tightens it's grip.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RJJ
Crinan12 said:
Quite often see a Facebook post or whatever saying something along the lines off 'so and so' s boats jib has unfurled and is flapping about on its mooring'

This is def the sort of thing that will happen to me given me ability to make a mess of pretty much everything

So how does it happen? Surely if you cleat the jib sheets and the furling line it cant unfurl? I put a bungee round my jib as well. Is there other things one should do?

Are there people out there even more hopeless than me?
Click to expand...
Cleating the sheets won't have any effect, and the furling line can chafe through.
Genoas generally break free if they are (a), not co.etely rolled up, ( b), loosely rolled up, so that the wind can get in and start moveme t of the fabric. The best preventative is to roll up tightly, roll an extra couple of turns of the sheets around the sail and finally to tie it all up with a couple of sail-ties
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top