Roller reefing - to winch or not to winch

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Finbar

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When reefing on my Sadler 32 I bear away to a beam reach, let the sheets loose a little and haul the furling line by hand to roll up the genoa. Can be noisy in a blow. I notice others especially in bigger boats stay on the wind and simply free the sheeets a little and winch in the furling line. Any views on best practice?
 
On my Sadler 26 I generally just ease the sheet and haul in the furling line by hand. When its very windy, I sometimes luff up to do it or do it through the middle of a tack. Bearing away to do it creates a lot of flapping and whipping sheets but does lighten the load on the furling line. On my current boat and other (bigger) boats I've sailed, I generally only winch the furling line as a last resort.
Morgan
 
don't! Or at least be careful. One of my charterers winched and did not notice there was a halyard wrap and kept on pulling. Result: damaged forestay and a bill for £150 for its replacement. Better to make sure the furler/reefer is running easily rather than pulling at full bash and damaging the kit.

Tigger is 35 ft, but the way.
 
I do the same... bear away, let it flap, wind it in by hand.

On those rare occassions when the wind is really strong, I winch, but am very careful with it.
 
If it's blowing and you've plenty of room, bear right away and put the sail behind the main. You'll furl it in a few seconds and be on your way before the people struggling with the wind in the sail.
 
I just let the jib sheets fly and pull in on the furling line. I agree with the respondent above, if you have to winch something is very wrong and you need to check everything for the cause. The main thing is to reduce the air pressure against the sail which causes friction and the reefing difficulty. My boat is a 30 footer by the way.
 
Used to have dreadful problems hauling in the headsail--actually got to the point where I thought that the bearings had failed. Now I release the tension on both the headsail halyard and the backstay and it comes in as easy as anything. Why didn't I think about it before
 
On my boat (42ft cruiser/racer thing), the sheets get eased, then the furling line is winched. In light conditions, it is possible to haul in the furling line by hand, but this results in a loose furl and the anti-UV strip doesn't cover the whole sail (oh, it looks like a wonky barber's pole in the wrong colour, too...).
 
Obviously larger boats will need help and not just by hand.

Smaller and up to mid 30's should be able to furl by hand unless strong wind etc.

I prefer not to let sail completely free otherwise furl is loose. A small tension on sheets against the furl is enough to tighten the turns and get a nice small section to the finished affair. Plus as another says - UV strip covers all then.

If furler is that stiff that needs winch for all furling - then IMHO it's time for a clean out of the bearings etc. or something else is possibly wrong.
 
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Used to have dreadful problems hauling in the headsail--actually got to the point where I thought that the bearings had failed. Now I release the tension on both the headsail halyard and the backstay and it comes in as easy as anything. Why didn't I think about it before

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What you are doing is reducing the load on the bearings - exactly what you would have to do if the bearings were failing.
 
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Used to have dreadful problems hauling in the headsail--actually got to the point where I thought that the bearings had failed. Now I release the tension on both the headsail halyard and the backstay and it comes in as easy as anything. Why didn't I think about it before

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What you are doing is reducing the load on the bearings - exactly what you would have to do if the bearings were failing.

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If I was to slack of backstays etc. - I would have greater difficulty furling as the whole lot would distort as it sags ! on the slack forestay.
 
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Now I release the tension on both the headsail halyard and the backstay and it comes in as easy as anything.

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Strange... I have to TENSION the backstay, so straightening the forestay, or it is near to impossible to roll the sail in. The headstay sag apparently has leverage on the drum.
 
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