Main sail furling

[Robin]

Hi John

The pic below was taken with light winds and a fully battened slab reefing sail. Speaks for itself?

Happy Christmas all

Robin

 

[Ships_Cat]

Hope it wasn't because the tide was with you - but I know that was not the case for your type of boat. With 12 tonnes laden, about 36 foot sailing w/l length we cannot manage that in 10 knots apparant even with full battened main.

We have visitors until 10 Jan so wife and I hope to get away on the boat straight after that for a couple of weeks - work permitting as a client is threatening starting an 112 foot new build (powerboat) in the new year which he wants me to look after for him so I may have my style cramped :-( .

If we do not come across each other beforehand Robin have a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year. Same to the other posters to this thread as well.

John

 

[Becky]

Re: FWIW

Oh, how I have had to wait for this reply!! Patronising? I should say so. I was dragging an Enterprise dinghy around the N of England while you were still in short trousers. So, a dinghy has a big mainsail, which is tuned by adjustment of the halliard, the gooseneck tensioner, and the outhaul. I can't remeber the exact terms, it was a few years ago. But, we used to tune our mains to the wind conditions. When I progressed to displacement sailing boats, the concepts were the same. But only with boats with big driving mainsails.
On Cornish Maid, we have a smallish (relatively) mainsail, which just happens to be on-mast furling, and the standard genoa. When the wind picks up, we reduce the genoa first, then we reduce the two equally. This seems to work. The boat seems to go very well, when we do this, and the few inproptu races we have had with somewhat racier boats would support the view. Now if the mast was mounted a little further forward, and the foretriangle consequently smaller, the influence of the mainsail would be graeter, and any alteration of it, by in-mast furling, e.g., would become more significant. But on our boat, it is the foretriangle that produces the drive. So an on/in-mast reefing system has an approprtiately reduced effect.
A yacht with a small jib, like the self-tacking arrangement on the Hanse yachts, or the Hunters would respond quite differently.
And while I am on this rant, we know of several yachts on the ARC who have happily sailed across the Atlantic with in-mast reefing.
We have reefed in quite strong winds with no problems what so ever, though admittedly on my last boat, I had vertical battens which jammed if the angles were not correct. But knowing the cause of a problem goes a long way to sorting it.
End of rant; frustration in having to wait so long to reply /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif <font color="red"> </font>

 

[Becky]

Re: FWIW

Poor Robin. I don't really mean it!

 

[Ships_Cat]

Re: FWIW

Yes he does deserve it and I think a nice root canal jobby would sort him out - I am safe as only the vet is interested in me /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif and he has already done his worst.

John

 

[Robin]

Re: FWIW

I didn't mean to be patronising but maybe didn't (still don't ) get the point you are trying to make just as you in turn have not understood the points I was making either!


Happy Christmas

Robin

 

[Becky]

Re: FWIW

I supppose that the time interval had blunted my argument somewhat as I hadn't re-read all the threads before replying.
My point is that there are some boats with rigs that are very influenced by the quality and set of the mainsail, and others that are less so because the genoa is the driving sail.So, a fully battened main in a boat like Cornish Maid will have a lesser effect provided the genoa is well set, than a boat where the mainsail is the main motive force. The downside is that it isn't possible to tune a foresail like it is a main. I wouldn't race a boat with an in-mast furling main, unless the handicap allowance was worth it. And I wouldn't have chosen an in-mast mainsail. But in the hard reality of life, to change from the sail the boat came with would cost us a fortune. And in the cold light of day, on our boat the cost wouldn't be worth it. The main hasn't any battens, and seems to roll away easily, even in strong winds; at least the strongest winds we have been able to experience since we have owned C M. We even furled the sail by tensioning the sail with the furling line as opposed to the outhaul. It was blowing about 23+ knots of wind at the time. Not VERY strong, but interesting nevertheless.
So, as others have said, it really depends on what type of sailing you plan to do, the type of boat you own, and also the depth of your pockets. The only thing I would add is that in/on mast reefing is better than most people seem to think.
Here endeth the lesson according to Becky./forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif