[alberg30] Roller Furling Considerations

[Bob Johns]

On 7/23/00:  finnus505 at aol.com  said:

>If you go for roller furling, but have fun sailing in the rough stuff, then
>you must buy a storm jib that can be attached to your roller furling foil.
>When things get ugly, or good, depending on your point of view, you take the
>#1 off the foil, and hoist the storm jib in its place.
>
>I've seen ads for storm jibs that have hanks as large as bales, and they are
>designed to be hoisted with these bales riding over the furled genny.
>Advantage;you don't have to take off the genny. Disadvantage; you will still
>have to deal with the windage of the furled sail.

Hi Lee,

I agree with your thoughts about roller furling, except that some of us are
still using the old fashioned Schaefer systems in which no foils are used.
The jib is located aft of the forestay and is furled around its own luff
wire. We have a hank-on working jib, and on a cruise the working jib stays
in a sail locker until the first time it is needed. Then it is hanked on
the forestay and the furled genoa dropped in its furled condition and
secured to the base of the pulpit. When the working jib is no longer needed
it is bagged and flipped over the front of the pulpit and the furling jib
again raised. The sail bag does add somewhat to windage, but it is clear of
the furling jib and instantly available for the rest of the cruise. The
genoa and working jib have their own sheets so they only need to be rigged
once.

The furling jib can be dropped in heavy wind with no problems of blowing
away because in its furled condition it drops to the deck like a big
sausage and is easy to secure to the pulpit. No one seems to talk about the
problems associated with removing a genoa from the foil with the jib held
to the boat only by the halyard and sheets (and the time you are  doing
this is  when it is blowing like stink).

I haven't seen sails with large hanks that can fit over the furled sail.
Sounds as though it would be more difficult in a high wind to slide such a
jib up a furled jib than a normal hank-on jib up the forestay. Might do
damage to the furled sail as well. I assume that you would also have to
remove the genoa's sheets as well.

I don't minimize the advantages of a foil over the old system. The boat
must be headed up to furl the jib with the old system because off the wind
you can foul the forestay while furling the jib. I do have some problems
with the furling line getting fouled on the reel, but I don't know if this
is caused by the type of furling system. The foil probably makes it
possible to "reef" the jib better than with the old system. I haven't  used
a modern reefable furling system so maybe they have improved to the point
where they work well. I still feel that a jib designed as a small jib has
to be better than a big jib trying to look like a small jib. I do find that
I don't hesitate to change down to the working jib because it is so easy
after the first time.

Just my thoughts.

Bob Johns, A30  #307.



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