Mainsail boom furling solo

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vic008

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Really a two man job lowering the main as you can't just let the main halyard go and it needs a controlled lowering. Have done with a bucket tied to the halyard and thrown over the back and that worked. Is there a better way of keeping some load on the main halyard as you wind the mainsail down? If you let it go the main falls down on the deck
 
Poignard said:
'as you wind the mainsail down' suggests he has roller reefing.
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I was a bit confused by the post. I assumed that he didn't have in-boom furling but followed Tranona's line of thought. When I had roller reefing I would only roll it onto the boom when reefing. I don't remember having any trouble doing it at the mast, though it was a fair while ago - pre 1987. I think what I probably did was either use one hand for the halyard and the other for the winding-handle. This would have been when putting in a reef before setting off. If at see and needing to hold on with one hand, I would have lowered a short length of main, fastened it, and rolled it onto the boom, repeating as necessary.
 
There are old round the boom reefing systems, and there are newer, in-boom systems, though I believe they tend to be on bigger boats, with more sophisticated systems than a bucket to keep tension on the line.

So, assuming it's the former, definitely don't bother with rolling the main to furl it, but set up some lazyjacks. Better still, slab reefing and lazyjacks, with the lines brought aft. You can add a stackpack, which isn't a hard DIY job, at leisure. When I did that on my last boat, it transformed sail handling. My first trip out after doing it was a bit breezy, so I put a reef in before leaving, but soon decided I wanted another one. I brought the head to wind, put the reef in and was done before the bow blew off. Previously, winding in a reef meant putting the engine on and, if solo, setting the autopilot, as that was the only way to keep the head to windward long enough.
 
johnalison said:
I was a bit confused by the post. I assumed that he didn't have in-boom furling but followed Tranona's line of thought. When I had roller reefing I would only roll it onto the boom when reefing. I don't remember having any trouble doing it at the mast, though it was a fair while ago - pre 1987. I think what I probably did was either use one hand for the halyard and the other for the winding-handle. This would have been when putting in a reef before setting off. If at see and needing to hold on with one hand, I would have lowered a short length of main, fastened it, and rolled it onto the boom, repeating as necessary.
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When I bought my Twister, she retained her original roller-reefing boom but had been converted to slab-reefing by a previous owner.

I knew that Eric Hiscock, whose advice I valued more than any other, preferred roller-reefing so I reinstated it on my boat.

Reefing single-handed was a two-hand job: one hand to wind the handle and the other to surge the halyard round its cleat.

All simple enough, unless the boat was jumping around: two hands for the ship and none for myself!

This was just one of the drawbacks to roller-reefing that I found.

Anyway, the debate I was having with myself about whether to revert to slab-reefing was settled by the boom snapping in two during a breeze.

I had a new, slab-reefing boom made, (at my insurer's expense) and reefed happily ever after!
 
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I have in-boom furling and reefing on an 11m yacht, boom 4.3 m. (Auto correct made that into "curling and beefing", which might be appropriate.) There is sufficient friction in the system to ensure that the main sail will not just fall with the halyard free. The sail needs to be furled very precisely to ensure it will all go into the boom. The vang/topping lift needs precise adjustment.
Single handed furling needs aurohelm assistence. An electric winch (handle) is a big help too.
 
I guess you have through mast roller furling and a rope luff on your main - same as me! I find you need to get the topping lift set just right and a turn with the halyard around the winch to keep tension. I can reef with the boat sailing to windward on head sail alone - mainsheet slack. Full furling needs to be fully into the wind, though. If you're quick, you can just about do it while the boat coasts into the wind!
 
As per John Alison, we used to reef it in stages. Let out some halyard, wind it onto the boom, let out some more halyard etc. A messy business to achieve a droopy boom and poor setting sail. All done whilst trying not to lose the vital roller reefing handle. Rolling a towel into the aft end helped a bit but needed yet more hands.

Throwing a bucket over the back would have added complexity and comedy to the proceedings!
 
Supertramp said:
As per John Alison, we used to reef it in stages. Let out some halyard, wind it onto the boom, let out some more halyard etc. A messy business to achieve a droopy boom and poor setting sail. All done whilst trying not to lose the vital roller reefing handle. Rolling a towel into the aft end helped a bit but needed yet more hands.

Throwing a bucket over the back would have added complexity and comedy to the proceedings!
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It is so long ago that I can't remember how I managed the reefing handle on our 26' boat but it must have been a bit fraught at times, though I'm absolutely sure that I never lost one. There was one occasion when the tufnol block inside the boom that connected with the screw died of old age and stripped itself, and I had to disengage the gooseneck and roll the boom by hand, which I seem to recall was tremendous fun while rolling around in a squall at the mouth of the Blackwater. much easier was a friend's boat with the handle at the front of the mast integral with the mechanism that worked through the mast.
 
Surely, having condemned his roller-reefing as a load of rubbish, we should be telling him how to convert it to slab-reefing at low cost!!

(Actually, not that difficult to do. )
 
Agree, add spray, a flogging sail and a high coachroof for the full experience.. But it did work and made setting a trysail or storm mainsail seem relatively easy.

It's strange how a "modern" idea falls into history so fast. I can only assume the reason for not using slab reefing was the lack of boom end and gooseneck fittings at the time which aid slab reefing.

For the OP, it's about finding the technique that works for your system - lowering in small steps was our solution. Resetting the sail back to full size was another game trying to feed the slides into the track.....

I now have in mast furling which is another idea that is not, I think, optimal either!
 
Supertramp said:
For the OP, it's about finding the technique that works for your system - lowering in small steps was our solution.
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It would, it seems to me, be easy to rig up something to add enough friction to the halyard that it doesn't run wild but you can still pull it through without much effort. Ideally something on the mast - could be as simple as a clutch, perhaps? Or a home-made wooden 'plate' mounted on the side of the mast, with a couple of blocks (open between them, so you can just place the halyard between them, rather than needing to thread through from the end, when dropping the main, and just pull it off the gadget again when done), these mounted to one side of the halyard path, with another (or something curved that doesn't spin?) between them on the other side to create a serpentine path through the gadget, maybe with some adjustment mechanism to alter the position of the middle roller/bit so that the amount of friction could be adjusted to best suit?

Or, to keep it simple, a snap hook on a short line (line other end secured to the mast foot), and one could add a suitable thickness (layers?) of cord whipping around the rods forming the snap hook to make its surface less slippery and reduce the opening to provide a suitable amount of friction?
 
LittleSister said:
It would, it seems to me, be easy to rig up something to add enough friction to the halyard that it doesn't run wild but you can still pull it through without much effort. Ideally something on the mast - could be as simple as a clutch, perhaps? Or a home-made wooden 'plate' mounted on the side of the mast, with a couple of blocks (open between them, so you can just place the halyard between them, rather than needing to thread through from the end, when dropping the main, and just pull it off the gadget again when done), these mounted to one side of the halyard path, with another (or something curved that doesn't spin?) between them on the other side to create a serpentine path through the gadget, maybe with some adjustment mechanism to alter the position of the middle roller/bit so that the amount of friction could be adjusted to best suit?

Or, to keep it simple, a snap hook on a short line (line other end secured to the mast foot), and one could add a suitable thickness (layers?) of cord whipping around the rods forming the snap hook to make its surface less slippery and reduce the opening to provide a suitable amount of friction?
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Or just a single turn on a cleat at the mast (or elsewhere)... I have roller boom reefing, but I only ever use it when reefing - rest of the time I flake the sail down and use sail ties..
 
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