Slugs for jibs?

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smonard

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Is there any reason why one shouldn't secure hank on foresails to slugs in the foil slot of a roller reefing type system? It would make sail changes much easier and enable us to use hank on working jibs/storm jibs without fussing about with removable inner forestays. Just wondered.
 
There'd presumably be an aerodynamic penalty, but the main contra I could see is that a headsail foil is designed to be evenly loaded along its length, and might not react well to point loads.

Presumably there'd also be danger of impact damage to the foil by the piston hanks if the sail were allowed to flog, or if it were inadvertently rolled.
 
I suspect that foils are designed to spread the load of the fores'l along the whole luff. Point loading that load on to slugs might cause jamming, or even the slug to pull out of the groove.

At a very rough estimate, by using slugs you will be putting 10 to 20 times the loading onto the luff groove, in comparison with the normal luff rope into the slot.


EDIT Beaten by TK. :)
 
Twister_Ken said:
There'd presumably be an aerodynamic penalty, but the main contra I could see is that a headsail foil is designed to be evenly loaded along its length, and might not react well to point loads.

Presumably there'd also be danger of impact damage to the foil by the piston hanks if the sail were allowed to flog, or if it were inadvertently rolled.
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Certainly would be the case with a plastic racing foil. Ali foil might get away with it, but I'd be sceptical.

How about making short webbing straps to go around the foil, then hank the jib onto them? Sort of like the Gale sail idea, but without the genoa still on the foil.

Of course the easiest way would be to get the sail converted to a luff groove sail. Then you could furl it away as well if required.
 
used old jib sails on 3 different boats using slugs to slide in a foil slot and never had any problem either with shape of sail or with sliders. A good point about the point loading on the foil but if you work out the lbs per square footloading of the sail area at normal windspeeds loading per slide is unlikely to exceed about 20lbs which does not look excessive.
 
I have slugs in an aluminium foil(Plastimo) and have never had any problems with it.
Having said that I would rather just have a bolt rope going into the foil, but the slugs work fine.
 
smonard said:
Is there any reason why one shouldn't secure hank on foresails to slugs in the foil slot of a roller reefing type system? It would make sail changes much easier and enable us to use hank on working jibs/storm jibs without fussing about with removable inner forestays. Just wondered.
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I know someone who has had this arrangement on his boat for years and is perfectly happy with it. He can drop or hoist the sail almost as easily as with a hanked-on jib. His boat is a 28-foor Twister with a Rotostay furler.

I would fit it to my Twister but my Rotstay is one of the very early ones where the halyard is belayed on the drum, so it might not be much improvement.

Also see:

http://reefrite-na.com/kiwi-slides/kiwi-slide-details
 
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I have a no 1 jib that I like using. To keep it in business on a Rotostay, I fitted slugs to the luff. I worried about the point loading due to slugs instead of bolt rope, so I put some extra eyelets in and doubled up on the number of slugs. It has worked fine for some years (need a new sail, now). Note that if the sail doesn't fit the whole length of the foil, you need a strop at the head of the sail so that the swivel can get right to the top of the foil and stop the haliard rolling when you pull the reefing line.

Neil
 
Points taken about increased loads on the slugs but as one poster suggested one could double up on slugs. I thought raising a sail would be much easier with slugs than with a bolt rope, they could all be attached before hoisting easier single handed. Point also taken about having a strop at the head of the sail to avoid halyard wrap. I was planning on going the inner forestay route or solent stay with the attachment near the top of the mast to avoid the need for running backstays. Slugs would seem a much cheaper alternative assuming your can get the genoa down if its that windy. I like others have a load of old hank on sails. I thought a strong No 1 jib would furl to storm jib size quite nicely without getting too baggy.
Thanks for your thoughts.
 
smonard said:
Points taken about increased loads on the slugs but as one poster suggested one could double up on slugs. I thought raising a sail would be much easier with slugs than with a bolt rope, they could all be attached before hoisting easier single handed. Point also taken about having a strop at the head of the sail to avoid halyard wrap. I was planning on going the inner forestay route or solent stay with the attachment near the top of the mast to avoid the need for running backstays. Slugs would seem a much cheaper alternative assuming your can get the genoa down if its that windy. I like others have a load of old hank on sails. I thought a strong No 1 jib would furl to storm jib size quite nicely without getting too baggy.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Click to expand...

Please let us (and me, in particular) know how you get on with this, if you decide to go ahead with it.
 
smonard said:
I thought raising a sail would be much easier with slugs than with a bolt rope,
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This is the bit I don't get. With a decent pre feeder you only need to feed the head into the slot, the rest of the bolt rope just follows as the sail is hoisted. With slugs you have to feed each individual one into the slot, and then somehow hold them in place and prevent them from falling out whilst you back to the mast/cockpit to hoist.

I can see the value of slugs if you are looking for a cheap way of converting an existing hank on sail (though total cost of slugs vs conversion could be close...) but if starting from scratch it seems to add all of the inconvinience of hanks, without the benefit that the sail remains attached when dropped in a hurry. Which is of course the biggest drawback of the bolt rope.
 
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