[Public-List] Roller Furling
Michael Connolly
crufone at comcast.net
Fri Sep 29 06:11:13 PDT 2017
Gord,
Thanks for the vivid explanation. I thought that most folks knew what happens when a skipper uses roller furling as roller reefing. For every convenience there is always some compromise. I still maintain that for best performance a hanked-on Jib or Genoa provides a better leading edge luff shape to the sail than any fully deployed roller furled sail.
I crew for a skipper in Florida who has had the foam pieces installed in her Genoa. It is not pretty but she feels it gives her more options when using her pick-up crew for racing. A green crew is not going to be able to do a head sail switch very effectively between races.
Michael #133
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeffrey via Public-List" <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
To: "Gordon Laco" <mainstay at csolve.net>
Cc: "Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all" <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>, "George Dinwiddie" <gdinwiddie at alberg30.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2017 3:08:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Public-List] Roller Furling
Thanks for taking the time Gord. Makes perfect sense. I can't tell you how
many boats I've been on where the owner treated the roller furler as a
roller reefer. Myself included with boats I've chartered.
Good info. I'm still hanking my head sails.
Jeff
On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 2:17 PM, Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net> wrote:
> Hello Jeff –
>
>
>
> Sailing with a headsail partially furled, particularly in heavy air,
> destroys the sail.
>
>
>
> You’ve probably seen how mainsails have reinforcing at the reefs... this
> is because of the concentrations of loads and the new clew and tack when
> the sail is reefed. When a genoa is partially furled, it has a new tack
> and head... but no reinforcing. The sail cloth is stretched and that’s the
> end of that sail with regard to shape. The worst manifestation of this is
> a stretched leach, which shows as a flutter caused by the damage to the
> sail cloth allowing distortion in shape.
>
>
>
> For a while some sailmaking conglomerates were offering an option that
> involved sewing reefing positions in headsails in the form of reinforcement
> patches such as one sees in mains... in use the sailor would furl till the
> head and tack patches were up to the stay... but in practice that doesn’t
> help much because the distorting loads carry round the furler stay, not
> just at the point.
>
>
>
> And besides all that, one gets a poor shape when a sail is partially
> furled. Too bulbous in the middle of the bunt, too tight at the head and
> tack. And, to combat this, some companies were for a while offering foam
> inserts to the luff of sails in hopes of making them half-furl more
> effectively... but this of course didn’t address the basic issue that using
> a furler for reefing destroys the sail.
>
>
>
> Gord
>
> #426 Surprise
>
>
>
> *From: *Jeffrey <fongemie at gmail.com>
> *Reply-To: *<fongemie at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 2:04 PM
> *To: *Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net>, George Dinwiddie via Public-List
> <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
> *Cc: *George Dinwiddie <gdinwiddie at alberg30.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [Public-List] Roller Furling
>
>
>
> Gord,
>
>
>
> Did you write that reffing a furling headsail via rolling some of it in is
> bad for the sail? I'd not heard this before. What's the issue?
>
>
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 11:54 AM, Gordon Laco via Public-List <
> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>
> That’s the way I did it aboard the Folkboat...
>
> G
> #426 Surprise
>
>
> On 2017-09-28, 11:35 AM, "Public-List on behalf of George Dinwiddie via
> Public-List" <public-list-bounces at lists.alberg30.org on behalf of
> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>
> I quickly learned not to tie the downhaul to the halyard or the head of
> the sail. Pulling down on the head of the sail twists the sail at the
> top hank, jamming it on the forestay. That's why I tie the downhaul to
> the top hank. A clove hitch around the body of the hank secured with a
> half hitch seems to work fine.
>
> - George
>
> On 9/27/17 10:08 PM, Rod Symmes via Public-List wrote:
> > <<< Guess that I could install grommets along the
> > luff, say three inches in from the luff tape and run a line from the
> top
> > grommet to the foredeck, then use a downhaul just as George does.
> Have
> > not seen anyone do that. Could be interesting. Will have to ask
> around
> > about it. >>>
> > Jonathan - I would advise against doing that. I don't believe it
> will work well - and here is why.
> >
> > On my previous boat I had hanked on foresails and a down-haul that
> worked beautifully until I too thought I could "improve" it. My halliard
> had a snap for the head of the jib and the down haul was also tied to the
> snap, down to a block at the stem and back to the cockpit, as someone
> mentioned earlier. Because that down haul was not restrained, if the wind
> was just right, it would whap whap whap at the back of the jib. I thought
> I would fix that by clipping each ( ?? senior moment) on the luff of the
> jib over both the fore stay and the down haul as I installed it thus
> containing the down haul line. My thinking was that should work - it will
> be coming down with the sail.
> >
> > WRONG ! By the time the jib was half way down, the ( senior
> moments ) were piling up at the foot of the stay and the down haul was
> having to slide through them all. The friction became so great I could not
> get the jib all the way down. Grommets would bind on the line even worse.
> Also, you would have to re-thread that line each time you change jibs.
> Not convenient or quick.
> >
> > With the down haul loose to fly from the head to the stem block, it
> was quick and easy and, while lowering sail, if pulled down snugly and
> cleated, even a big genoa would usually stay inside the lifelines until I
> could deal with it.
> >
> > Bonus Feature: the halliard can never get lost up the mast.
> >
> >
> > Happy sailing.
> >
> >
> > Cheers, Rod P.S. Is that (senior moment) called a
> barrel snap ????? (-:
> >
> > ~~~~_/) ~~~~~~~~~~
> > ~~~~~~~_/) _/) ~~~~~~~
> > ~~_/) ~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> >
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> --
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>
>
> ______________
>
> Jeffrey Fongemie
>
> <http://instagram.com/jfongemie>
>
--
______________
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<http://instagram.com/jfongemie>
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