In-Mast Furling Nightmare

[Dockhead]

I have been using in-mast furling now for 10 years and tens of thousands of miles of hard sailing in latitudes rarely below 50N. This system has some drawbacks, but for rough weather, ocean sailing, it has some huge advantages.


Today I had only the second big problem I've ever had with this system. The first was a bad jam of the old bagged out Dacron mainsail, caused by my lack of experience in using it, during the first months of my ownership. Never repeated.


But today something happened which I could not have even imagined before -- and let it be a warning for others.


I was sailing into the Elbe River out of the German Bight, after sailing non-stop from Cowes. On the way to Brunsbuttel to catch the Kiel Canal into the Baltic. We skipped Helgoland this year because of bad weather blowing in from the NW -- what you don't want to be messing around in the Elbe estuary in. We timed it just right, catching the start of the flood in the approaches to the estuary, and flying in sailing fast downwind on mainsail alone, on the beginning of the bad weather NW winds.


It came time to furl the sail, and I couldn't understand why it was so hard. The effort varies greatly according to angle and how much wind is in the sail -- and this is a drawback, because it makes it harder to feel when something is going wrong. Then the splice in the furling line burst.


As it turns out -- the spare main halyard got sucked into the furling mechanism somehow -- unseen by me because it was behind the preventered-out main. I guess I had left it too loose. And jammed it dead. Luckily I was fully crewed with competent sailors, and working together we managed to work it out, by using the emergency furling drum thing, working it in and out, and then pulled out the jam in the sail the way I learned 10 years ago, by pulling the boom downward with the mainsheet and vang. So pretty soon we were back in order and flying up the Elbe with the jib, and just made the lock without waiting.





So just a heads up to those using in-mast furling -- take care with your spare halyards!! This could have been ugly had I been single handed.

[billknny]

This is a much more common problem with headstay furling systems where people manage to get the spinnaker halyard wrapped into the sail because they don't put it away properly.

I was taught to always tie my extra halyards to the rail, abeam the mast. Running them parallel to the mast is just asking for trouble, and the one reported here is just one kind. And it is noisy in a blow besides as they "thawap" against the mast. Who puts up with that?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by billknny

This is a much more common problem with headstay furling systems where people manage to get the spinnaker halyard wrapped into the sail because they don't put it away properly.

I was taught to always tie my extra halyards to the rail, abeam the mast. Running them parallel to the mast is just asking for trouble, and the one reported here is just one kind. And it is noisy in a blow besides as they "thawap" against the mast. Who puts up with that?

Thanks for that -- maybe I've been really lucky, and maybe my halyards have all along been an accident waiting to happen. I am now going to think about this hard. Experience is a tough teacher!

[JPA Cate]

Thanks for sharing, Dockhead. All our halyards are led back to the mast, and tensioned.

As you may remember, we have never had mainsail furling. I know you're enthusiastic about it, but we've seen too many instances, where, unlike your own good self, people were not able to cope with them, including one, with a frustrated rigger, cutting the luff of the main to get the bluidy thing out.

Glad you all got it sorted.

Ann

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Thanks for sharing, Dockhead. All our halyards are led back to the mast, and tensioned.

As you may remember, we have never had mainsail furling. I know you're enthusiastic about it, but we've seen too many instances, where, unlike your own good self, people were not able to cope with them, including one, with a frustrated rigger, cutting the luff of the main to get the bluidy thing out.

Glad you all got it sorted.

Ann

I didn't intend this thread to be yet another debate of the pros and cons of in-mast furling versus other types. I am not a fan boy of this system or any other -- I try to maintain a sober assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of every choice. With furling, like in so many things, it's horses for courses.



If I were sailing for fun around coasts, I would never have in-mast furling, with the loss of sail area, no roach, the thick and heavy and unbendable mast, etc. etc. etc. etc. It's funny that in-mast furling is marketed to weekend sailors -- that's the last place where it makes sense.


Offshore and in bad weather, however, in-mast furling has saved my bacon more than once, more than ten times, actually. It does have some fantastic advantages. But on top of the other disadvantages of it, it is not idiot-proof, and requires skill and taste to use successfully. It should be marketed to a completely different audience, than it is, in my opinion.



If I ever get to the liquidity event in my business which will allow me to start building my next boat, I hope I will have figured out which furling system I want, or even which rig. I haven't yet. If it's going to be a cutter, then I'm presently leaning slightly towards Selden in-mast furling like what I have now, maybe with electric operation of the foil. However, I think about making the next boat a ketch, and then with the smaller sails I think slab reefing with nice roachy main and mizzen, would be nice. Don't know.

[kas_1611]

Had a similar incident in the early days of using our in mast furling main when a thin mousing line got snagged but we were able to unfurl, extract the mouse line and get the sail safely furled in without further incident. Moral of that story is make sure NOTHING hangs anywhere near the main sail (or the furling jib for that matter) that does not need to be there.

As with any sail system there are pros and cons which must be considered and there are right and wrong ways to handle the sails. The furling main makes it easier to handle the sail short handed (ie just the 2 of us) and gives an infinite number of "reefing" points all from the safety of the cockpit. Yes the basic sail does lose some of the finesse of a traditional slab reefed main but with modern sail materials it is possible to get positive roached, battened furling mains.

That said if you fly a furling main in the same style as your furling jib/genoa then you can get the same performance, ie hull speed. It all comes down to knowing your sails and how to get the best out of them.

Having been bruised and battered trying to reef a slab reef main while trying to hang on to the boom in a rolling sea I'll take my in mast furler but I won't try to tell anyone that any system is better than any other. It is a personal choice at the end of the day.