A Newbie's Furler Question

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Suijin

If you do it a lot, changing the sail on a furler is no more difficult, and perhaps even less difficult, than a hanked on sail, IF you use a pre-feeder and your foil is well maintained and correctly set up. I race a fair amount here on the Chesapeake in the summer on a few go-fast boats and we change headsails a LOT. Yes you need someone at the bow and someone on the halyard, but you also don't spend five-ten minutes fiddling with the hanks.

I consider a furler to be a mandatory piece of equipment on my boat. I single hand a lot, and the ability to deploy, take in, or shorten sail in 20 seconds is critical. My staysail is hanked on and it won't be long before I put that on a furler too. One piece of advice when you get to it...bear off downwind to take in the sail. I see a lot of sailors struggling to take it in as they are luffing into the wind, thinking that's easiest, but it's not.

It's definitely a DIY project once you understand the design and mechanics of it. Make sure you've considered all the issues with respect to equipment around the bow. For example, if you have an anchor roller, make sure the furler drum is set high enough (adding a tang beneath it) to allow the shank of the anchor to clear the drum as it pivots over the roller. In addition to having a bolt rope added and the hanks removed, you might need to have the sail recut at the foot based on the height of the furler.

Great post bud!

[roverhi]

I find changing a headsail with a furler is not an easy thing for a single hander. Getting the sail to feed up the foil even with a prefeeder isn't a matter of just pulling on the halyard. The sail seems to hang up on prefeeder a number of times as it's hoisted up the furler. Changing the sail in nasty conditions is also way more fraught with peril than a hanked on sail. The foiled sail comes off the furler extrusion as it's lowered and can turn into a runaway if you are not careful.

Having said that, a furler is a godsend for a single hander especially it if has a foam/rope luff so it can be reefed and still hold a fairly decent shape. No more messing with sail changes for me until it's time to put up the storm jib. The 135 with foam luff just rolls up to a 100% jib without an issue.

The installation is a piece of cake using Norseman/StaLok terminals. Have taken mine down and reinstalled itnseveral times, mostly single handed. If you put a tang at the bottom to raise the furling drum, your existing forestay may be long enough that you can use it and have to mess with a fitting at only one end of your existing stay. Reccomend a furler with an open drum. Overrides are very rare but nearly impossible to clear without disassembling the furler with a closed drum.

[Nicholson58]

You will love sailing with a roller furler. Yoour wife will love that nobody needs to go on deck to douse a sail. In most cases, you will never deal with a sail bag or folding sails.

I raced many years with a racing foil. The foil was two tracks side-by-side and the foil was skinny & streamlined. It was not intended for furling. With these, you hoist & set the 'new' sail and then pull down the old sail. The boat was never without a headsail. The cruising roller furler is principally round in order to roll up nicely, like a window shade. They cast a larger wind shadow than a racing foil. Some cruising (round) furlers have two tracks so that a racing swap can be made OR you can wing & wing two headsails in side-by-side tracks. My Cruising Pro-Furl Classics are like that. You will find pretty good descriptions here and installation manuals. PROFURL - sail reefing systems for boats (headsail, mainsail)

On our boat, the #1 sail is too large to consider head sail changes. We have a second furler set at the 2/3 fractional for a storm jib. In your case, your head sails are easily managed & flaked on deck. Even so, you might have a #1 and a #2 which you choose at the dock based on your best guess. Your sails will be dacron & easy to handle.

Another option you might consider is a compromise #1 sized for most conditions and a code zero when the need arises for a lot of area. These can be Wrapped on a denama stay/furler (loose luff) or, as in our case, an ATN furling sock.

As noted by the others, a partly furled jib is not a pretty thing. I wince every time I see someone torturing their #1 this way.

[rbrentp]

I live...I learn. Thought the whole point of a roller furler was to avoid six different sails. Of course, I am cruising not racing and I know from racing days tiny bits of speed are critical. Have never seen anyone change the sail on a roller in a race...gonna have to keep my eyes open. I get what you say about shape not being ideal but in a cruising cat I wonder how much difference in speed we would really get versus the trouble hen single handing.

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by rbrentp

I live...I learn. Thought the whole point of a roller furler was to avoid six different sails. Of course, I am cruising not racing and I know from racing days tiny bits of speed are critical. Have never seen anyone change the sail on a roller in a race...gonna have to keep my eyes open. I get what you say about shape not being ideal but in a cruising cat I wonder how much difference in speed we would really get versus the trouble hen single handing.

The primary point of the furler is to stow the sail, but a benefit is that you can "reef" with it. But a #1 furled to a #3 is never going to approach the performance of a dedicated #3 blade.

For some one design racer/cruisers, class rules prohibit removing the furler for a race...you can have racing sails that hug the deck, but you can't remove the furler to use them. So you just go ahead and do headsail peels with the damn thing on.

When racing you want as much sail up as possible without being overpowered...you want to stay right on that edge, or in light winds have the appropriate sail up. I think in cats it's less of an issue as you don't have the same heeling and weather helm issues, but I don't really know as I've never raced cats.

[Jim Cate]

For some one design racer/cruisers, class rules prohibit removing the furler for a race...you can have racing sails that hug the deck, but you can't remove the furler to use them. So you just go ahead and do headsail peels with the damn thing on.

Just curious: how do you do a peel set when the first sail has the upper swivel up at the top of the stay? If you hoist the second sail in the unused groove, the swivel won't come down so you can't lower and peel the first sail.

Or, do the rules allow the non-use of the swivel, leaving it just above the drum? It all seems silly, but then many racing rules strike me that way!

(And I raced seriously for years before cruising overwhelmed me).

Jim

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Just curious: how do you do a peel set when the first sail has the upper swivel up at the top of the stay? If you hoist the second sail in the unused groove, the swivel won't come down so you can't lower and peel the first sail.

Or, do the rules allow the non-use of the swivel, leaving it just above the drum? It all seems silly, but then many racing rules strike me that way!

(And I raced seriously for years before cruising overwhelmed me).

Jim

For racing, you treat the roller furler as though it was just a race foil. You don't necessesarily (jprobably not) use it to roller furl. Obviously, you must hoist in the open groove & peel after the hoist. That means that you might have to run a spare halyard around the aft or forward end of the active sail to align with the open slot. Also, having both port & stbd spare halyards helps. It is quite possible to really screw up and have the halyards crossed between the top of the active sail head and the mast top - done it. I was foredeckman for 18 years; 3rd place boat of the year etc. - lots of experience. If it can be goofed up, sooner or later it will & I did it.

[Jim Cate]

What I was getting at, in a kinda oblique manner, is the statement that one could not "remove the furler" for class racing. My question really was "what constitutes removing the furler"? If you can hoist without the swivel being in the way or in use, then it is obvious that you use the foil in a normal racing configuration.

Jim

[UNCIVILIZED]

There are a fair percentage of furlers where you need to be careful of what you remove. As some of the key parts have bearings, & not all of these systems employ captive bearings. So if you disassemble them in the wrong order, or take apart the wrong part, you get to stand there frantically clutching as much of the assembly as you can, while watching bearings bounce off of the deck & down into Neptune's Realm.

[Ketchgould]

I installed our alado nautical furler in 3 hours. Easy. I am very impressed with the furler too. We used it all season with no problems. Less moving parts. Very well built. Least expensive furler that I could find. Never read a bad review.


Christian Gould
St. Paul, MN
S/V Sea Dog
Apostle Islands Lake Superior