Living with a Furling Gennaker

[robbieg]

My current boat is 7/8 fractional rigged with a fully battened main and 100% furling genoa. The system works well for me often sailing single handed or lightly crewed.The small headsail is easy to handle and rolls away to a relatively efficient no 4 for heavier winds. The downside is in light winds we are a bit underpowered especially when reaching.

I am wondering about getting a gennaker and furling system for light winds which would mount on the spinny halyard and a small bowsprit in front of the forestay. Ideally I'd like to use it on a "hoist and forget basis"-ie. hoist it in harbour and then leave it up for the passage calling on it if the winds are light or when we go off on a reach etc. Obviously it wouldn't go up if we were going into a real blow but equally if I put it up expecting a F3/4 and we end up with a F5 I don't want to have to go up front and get it down-I would just like to furl it up, set the 100% genoa and worry about getting it down when back in port.

Anyone used one of these furling sails in this way? If so would appreciate a heads up on the pros and cons.

Cheers and Happy New Year to all.

 

[PembrokeshirePromise]

Used one on a 49 ft Cat - and despite my mission to get Matt (tcm) to love it I'm not sure I totally succeded.

The sail is fine - but the roller furler on a rope halyard proved a bit of a pain:
- Need to get enough tension in the halyard to allow th thing to furl
- Need some sort of extra line to stop the drum turning as you roll the sail
- Rolling the sail can be quite hard as there was a fair bit of friction in the system - also of course often you are fulring as the wind gets up and so is too much for the sail (though we found rolling the jib out to protect it helped)
- Leaving it up all the time is chafe tastic - especially on the halyard - and whatever line stops the drum spinning - we were using it on transat crossing.
- Halyard did chafe through - spashing the gennaker - make sure that your bowsprit can take the force of a dragging sail
- If the whole lot unravels and you have to drop it - its a pain untangling and hoisting again.
- Not sure I'd like it up in a real blow - even furled it seemed to have much more potential to unravel a bit - and then get wrapped than a genoa

That said I'd never used a rolling gennaker before - so may well have not got it entirely right

Hope this helps

 

[simonfraser]

i have a light weight furling asymetric on harken gear, excelent light weather sail.
furls up to 10 aparent . . .
drop it on the side when the wind pipes up.

 

[Seanick]

I have just bought a Karver KH 2 furler, for a 425 sq ft genoa. Hope to try it tomorrow......brrrrr! will report back.

 

[Seanick]

Light airs today. The furler did exactly what is said on the tin, and that was with a really slack luff. However, the sail was new too, and Ratseys fitted an Anti-torque luff rope, as opposed to wire, so it has 11mm to roll around. The only thing that need tweeking is the lead for the furling line, as our forestay is 45 degrees, and the control lines chafe as they exit the drum. Even so it was really easy to furl, with 8mm line.The hardest part of the process, apart from paying for the sail and furler, was the end to end splice in braid on braid. By the third attempt my line was a bit shorter!

Loads of boats out today, 12 in the harbour, and East Head looked like a summer sunday!

 

[robbieg]

Thanks for this-very helpful. Glad the seatrial of this expensive kit went well.

 

[torrmundi]

I have a rope-luff furling gennaker on a fractional rig. The furler is a Facnor continuous loop model. The gennaker is 39.5 square meters.

In our last race, we had the gennaker fully deployed with 18 knots of true wind and set a speed record for my boat. The furler worked fine, even under that load, although you did have to pull hard. The drive from that sail was incredible.

The sail definitely wants to unfurl in high winds, so it is a must to secure the proper end of the furling loop. The splice on the line can catch in the furler, so keeping a good, continuous winding motion while it passes through is essential. You can back off and try again, though. You alos have to keep track of which end of the line is which. I haven't used a loose luff much, so most of my comments are only for a tight luff. When I've used a looser luff, the luff rope tends to bounce, due to a set that it has taken during storage. Under the tension of the furling line, the loose luff allows the furler to pull the tack of the sail down close to the bowsprit. This messes up the furling line entry angle, making furling very difficult. If I had had a loose luff with 18 knots, I probably would have had to drop the sail, rather than furl it. I'd sure like to have a solution for that problem.

When I'm working upwind, I usually drop the gennaker to reduce windage.