Switch Furler for Good Old Hank-ons?

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Oyvind

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I've just come back from the Eastern Med, where I went to look at a 40+ foot ketch that's been for sale for some time. I was pleased with what I saw, and will probably make an offer.

The yacht is of a particularly sturdy and good build, with oversize rigging. A good, thing, since I'm moving with my family to Svalbard, which is as far north as you can possibly move on this planet and still keep your kids in school, and intend to keep the yacht in Longyearbyen.

In short, I'm looking for a yacht suitable for arctic cruising.

The yacht, like most these days, is rigged with a roller furler. I'm seriously contemplating whether to keep the roller furling and fit a Solent stay for a storm jib, or simply ditch the roller furler and go for good old hank-on foresails?

Any opinions? The keywords for the high Arctic is reliability and simplicity. This is an area where you're pretty much OYO, and you simply can't call the lifeboat service and expect them to help you if something goes wrong - because there isn't any lifeboat service up there.
 
A good, well rigged furling gear would be my choice. It beats fighting on the foredeck with a flapping jib, any day.
 
Furling Jib

I continue to resist fitting a furling jib. They are not nearly as popular in our yacht club as is in UK. Our club members mainly race of a Sunday afternoon. The few with furlers about 5 out of 30 boats always tend to be at the back of the fleet. In a decent blow on the wind I like a proper well cut and sized jib hanked on with the sheeting point correctly positioned and sheeted in really tight. My little boat performs fairly well with jib under sized but really suffers when overpowered. There is always the spin for running and broad reaching.
Much of course depends on your ability to forecast the wind strength changes during the voyage. For short voyages you can usually choose and stick with the correct sail based on experienced or predicted winds.
It also depends if you are going to be beating to windward or if you are happy to furl the jib and motor. Obviously racing there is always a lot of beating to windward.
Certainly with large heavy sails furling is better. I sail occasionally on an old Farr 40. It really takes 3 people to get the no 3 jib from the cabin onto the deck. Actual hoisting is easy with twin foils for the luff.

So if you buy the boat perhaps you should just use it as is and see how you like it. You may have old hank on jibs supplied or be able to get one cheap that can easily be substituted for a try. Or alternately go ahead with your removable inner forestay with storm jib and see how that performs.

So there no real advice at all. but I don't think furling jibs are all that great. olewill
 
William_H said:
Certainly with large heavy sails furling is better. I sail occasionally on an old Farr 40. It really takes 3 people to get the no 3 jib from the cabin onto the deck. Actual hoisting is easy with twin foils for the luff.
Click to expand...
With respect, I think that is the nub of Will's argument. Will day races a small twenty something foot boat on which hank on sails probably perform extremely well. If you are family sailing on a larger boat then there are lots of very good reasons why a decent quality roller gear and a well cut foam luffed genoa might be by far the better option. If you really are going to be out in heavy weather, a detachable inner forestay and a hank on working and storm jib might be a very sensible option: I agree that well reefed roller sails do not set or sail very well.

As far as reliability goes, have a look at what the single handed ocean sailors do. Lots of big sails on roller reefing gear, and although reliabilty was once an issue, those stories seem to have long gone.

One issue I have with the OP. Over sized rigging is NOT always a good thing. Correct sized rigging - as designed is better. The designer will have put lots of reserve strength in it, and if you oversize, it doesn't help - you just get more weight where you don't want more weight. Anyway, how do you know its oversize? People upping the size of wire to make themselves feel safer is just them failing to understand rigging and how it is designed. Its NOT necessarily a good thing and I suggest its somthing you need to discuss with a good rigger and your surveyor.
 
john_morris_uk said:
...

One issue I have with the OP. Over sized rigging is NOT always a good thing. Correct sized rigging - as designed is better. The designer will have put lots of reserve strength in it, and if you oversize, it doesn't help - you just get more weight where you don't want more weight. Anyway, how do you know its oversize? People upping the size of wire to make themselves feel safer is just them failing to understand rigging and how it is designed. Its NOT necessarily a good thing and I suggest its somthing you need to discuss with a good rigger and your surveyor.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I should have been clearer. What I understand is that the yacht was designed with an above-average strength rig for the size of the boat. It's still the original rig.
 
How much does your sail weigh?? Give or take a few meter waves and some stiff winds, do you want to wrestle with it?

Your call.... :D
 
Years ago when I did the day skipper practical we had had to use hank on sails. We were changing the Jib quite often but as there were four of us not really an issue. Although even there there was a couple of occasions I would have preferred not to be at the bow when it was rising and falling a fair distance.
However now with just the two of us would never contemplate getting rid of the self furling jib, so much easier. On one occasion it did get jammed up but fairly easy to sort out. As others have said it does depend on the size of the boat and the crew available
 
Get Rid Of The Furling System

Get rid of the furling system and foil if you are serious about the Arctic. Sooner or later you will come across icing and then the furling system or foil will freeze solid.

Piston hanks do freeze however by the time you notice the icing the sail can still be hauled down due to much smaller area covered with ice.

The Arctic demands simplicity. Oversize the halyard winches and fit self tailing if you are word about hoisting strength. Working on a foredeck, in a big sea, taking down a hanked on sail is very controllable if you understand what you are doing.
 
I'd also be tempted to go for hank-on sails in those conditions.

I have a Delta Storm Bag on my boat - very good bit of kit. Might be an option for you?
 
Perhaps not an option on the boat you are looking at but cutter rig with roller furler headsail gets my vote, if it gets up roll up the genny and main well reefed gets the sail low and near the centre with not too much to go wrong.
 
Oyvind said:
The yacht, like most these days, is rigged with a roller furler. I'm seriously contemplating whether to keep the roller furling and fit a Solent stay for a storm jib, or simply ditch the roller furler and go for good old hank-on foresails?
Click to expand...

Do you mean roller reefing (rigid tube or foil, allows intermediate positions) or roller furling (rotates the sail, no intermediate positions)? A good old-fashioned Wykeham-Martin roller furling gear might be a good option - you can roll the sail away with one heave on a rope and if it goes wrong you can lower it almost as easily as a hanked on one.
 
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