Removing my furler & 'hanking on' ?

[simonfraser]

I am mulling over the following:

Continous line furling drum works fine, but is a heavy lump of SS.
I day sail, so nearly always know what to expect re wind.
The jib has UV strips on mucking up the shape a bit.

1 remove the furler
2 new jib with luff rope out of dyneema
3 set the jib on furler, similar to the ones used for code zero, see harken, easy to remove with the sail, now i dont have to crumple the sail in a bag
4 tighten the jib luff more than the fore stay for max tension

Problems ?

 

[Seajet]

Simon,

it would help to know what sort of boat you have.

On my Anderson 22, 7/8ths rig with usually 100sq ft headsail, I wouldn't dream of using a roller; the headsails are small & light to carry to & fro, which isn't that often anyway.

The difference in sail set and pointing is very noticeable when sailing alongside other A22's with roller kit, also it seems crazy to me to fit something which drastically degrades sailing performance in strong winds, just when one needs all the help one can get !

Rolled headsails usually set like sacks, and if faced with serious conditions it seems a drag to me having to get the genoa off the foil and then set up a babystay for the storm jib.

A chum whose A22 is his first boat has now, after 15 years experience, thrown away his roller and gone for hanks.

We both find netting on the forward guardrails very useful for keeping sails and people on deck.

When I had a masthead rig Carter 30, the headsails were relatively huge & heavy, and I would have been very keen on a good roller set-up, but with smaller boats they're nothing but a pain; if I ever had any doubts, a few trips on other boats when the roller jammed the sail almost full out in strong winds and in one case a gale certainly convinced me !

As for 'setting the halliard tighter than the forestay', this is what racing dinghies have been doing for years; how about a wire luff jib and a highfield lever ?

 

[ProDave]

I have the barton roller furling drum system on my boat. It doesn't have a foil, but the headsail rolls around it's own steel luff wire.

When set, I can't see why it should sail any different whatsoever to a hanked on jib.

But the advantage is I don't have to go up to the foredeck to fit the sail, I do it all from the cockpit.

And unlike a "real" furling system with a foil, if something does jam, I can just release the halyard and drop the sail in the same way you would a hanked on sail.

Best of both worlds for a small boat?

 

[simonfraser]

7m ply/epoxy trimaran, sails like a beach cat, even with a reefer

 

[Seajet]

ProDave,

unless you have a serious tensioning device like a Highfield Lever, the luff will probably sag compared to a hanked sail - both set-ups would benefit from a good backstay tensioner.

I had a furler like that on my Osprey, the idea being to get the jib out of the way when playing with the spinnaker; as it's a furler rather than reefer, I can't see any advantage over a downhaul on the jib head and netting on the guardrails, which allows separate headsails without wire luffs which can be a bother to stow.

 

[ProDave]

ProDave,

unless you have a serious tensioning device like a Highfield Lever, the luff will probably sag compared to a hanked sail - both set-ups would benefit from a good backstay tensioner.

My technique was slacken the backstay a bit, haul the headsail up and tie off, then re tension the backstay. that got it nice and tight.

What I find with this boating lark, is there are many different ways of doing some things, some suit one person, others suit another. Neither is wrong or right.