Sigma 38 Mainsail Furling

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alant

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Most of these use a boltrope luff rather than slides, cos of one design rules.
However, when shorthanded, can be difficult to flake, particularly in a fair breeze, since it all drops out of mast onto deck.
Anyone got any favorite 'easy' way of flaking onto mast with few & not strong crew. Want to get them off coachroof asap.
 
Depends on whether you mind coming into harbour with an ugly looking sail. On boats with boltropes where I want to tie up a sail quickly, then flake later, I tend to bag the sail, i.e. make the bottom few feet of the sail into a trough-shape then roll the rest of it into the trough until you reach the halyard. One person can do this very rapidly and tie up the closed "bag" with a couple of sail ties.

It can then be undone and flaked whenever you're ready so the sail is stowed properly for next time
 
On our Sigma, we had a 'cruising main' which we had added slides to so that it didn't fall off the mast when lowered. There was a gate on the mast, and we had to change over the feeder arrangement when we went racing so that the racing main with its bolt rope would feed.
 
had the same problem on a Sigma 362, except my crew was only 8 years old at the time - simple put the crew onto the wheel and go forward yourself to get the sail down!
 
Fully aware of bagging & this is easy when the main luff has slides which are prevented from dropping out by a slide gate, capturing the heavy end.
However, on a luff which is boltrope, the whole sail (fairly large & heavy) will drop onto the deck unless there are 2 people at each end flaking or bagging.
If there is any reasonable breeze, this is not so easy to control, hence the question.
 
Fair enough, I thought I might be telling my grandma how to suck eggs - bagging's what I've used by myself on a boat with a boltrope and I've found it works for me even in a bit of wind and chop as long as you stand a bit aft of the mast, keep your arms wide and don't mind ending up with a saggy old duvet shape around the boom
 
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