In mast furling

[BlueSkyNick]

Actually I do often (not always!) agree with you Robin, even if I don't go on the record each time, but on the other post I meant that it was surprising that I agreed with you, Talbot and Claymore all on the same point!! Apols for my lack of clarity on that one.

With regard to IMF, I also agree with the technical points which you and others are raising with regard to performance. However, as the original post was seeking views I was hoping to balance the debate, somehow.

Your final point - all boats are compromises and it would be very boring if we all made the same choices - is absolutely spot on. I always think that when the old chestnuts come up on the forum (longkeel, AWB, deep cockpits etc etc...)



<hr width=100% size=1>It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.

 

[Robin]

In reality

I love in-mast and bilge keels and long keels and wheel houses and dinghies on davits and so on, because they all help make us look like topline racers as we power past under sail! But then every dog(house) has his day.......

Actually, today is the day, W or SW6 maybe 7 and it has just started to rain in Poole, perfect sailing day for a long keeled or bilge keeled motorsailer with a wheelhouse, in-mast reefing and a dinghy in davits.

Us? Well we are soon leaving for the boat, will put the conservatory up over the cockpit and look through it's picture window at our £million views across to Brownsea, glass of something suitable in hand! Oh and the sun just came out again, TGIF (it's POETS day). Oh and 4th July Sunday will put SWMBO in a good mood, ain't life grand!

Have a good weekend one and all!/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1><font size=1>Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!</font size=1>

 

[robp]

Re: What a load of tosh!

<<and very unseamanlike.>> What purist tosh! Whatever the pro and cons of IMF, it is at the end of the day just another method of furling. So who says that to be a Salty Sea Dog, you have to have slab reefing? I wonder what they said when the various systems used on reefing sloop rigs came about? Such as Dutchman, Single Line Reefing, Lazy Jacks whatever.

It is unlikely anyway, that a modern IMF system on a Ben will jam. A baggy sail makes unfurling difficult but not irretrievably so.

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[RupertW]

Not really a fan of in-mast reefing, mostly for performace reasons and the worry that it might stick when I need it furled, but when crewing last year I did see a wonderful advantage.

We were nightsailing with a couple of people trying to sleep below, broad reaching in light winds and biggish swell. The boom banged about incessantly, and I was just thinking about the bother of putting up a preventer. The owner came up, put the traveller all the way down, hauled the mainsheet tight, then, and this was the bit which surprised me, loosened the foot of the sail way off so that the main acted like a big genoa attached to a fixed boom. End of noise and a slight increase in speed.



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[nicho]

Is this a bit like the old Guiness ad? - "I don't like it, 'cos I havn't tried it"!! Modern in mast systems (mine's from Selden) are perfect for non - competitive use. Simple to use, easy to reef, and never jam if used properly (they usually only jam due to not having enough tension applied to the outhaul when hauling on the reefing endless line, thus causing the sail to "bag" and fill the in mast area before fully wound in). As for additional weight? The Selden mast weighs around 2 or 3 KG more than the standard unit, though of course there will always be a bit more weight aloft due to the sail itself - nothing to write home about though. John Goode from Southern Sailing is indeed a fan of in-mast for ease of use and convenience, whilst acknowledging a slight loss of sail performance.

For racing, not the best, as you have the equivalent of a permanant 0.5 reef. I don't know the actual ratios, but I know a huge number of new boats are ordered with IMR these days, simply because 90+% of sailors are cruisers and are not interested in the last 1/2 knot. Anyway, with the speed obtainable from these "dreadful" modern AWB's, it's a bit like avoiding automatic gearboxes on your car because it might knock 0.5 secs off its 0 - 62mph figure.

I imagine the same arguments (sorry, discussions!) took place at the time roller reefing was introduced to headsails!!

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[rwoofer]

Re: In reality

Having owned racing boats before I was never a fan of in-mast furling as my experience of it was only on charter holidays where you get cheap, nasty, worn-out dacron sails.

Now I have a boat with in mast furling, I thought I would treat myself to a decent furling main, so bought a tri-radial, pentex main with short vertical battens.

What a dramatic diffence! I have a positve roach (as least a much as normal a normal main), and can actually adjust the twist like a normal main. The best bit is that it was much cheaper to buy than a fully battened one.

So make sure you try a well designed, high tech furling main - the performance difference is surprisingly small.

RB

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