[Public-List] Roller Furling

Jeffrey via Public-List public-list at lists.alberg30.org
Thu Sep 28 12:08:01 PDT 2017


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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> gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
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> http://www.Alberg30.org
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>
>
> ______________
>
> Jeffrey Fongemie
>
> <http://instagram.com/jfongemie>
>



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______________

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<http://instagram.com/jfongemie>



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