Magazine article

[Jolly Roger]

For anyone who is interested in whacky sailboat stuff, an article of mine is out in this months Good Old Boat magazine. It’s about how I built my roller furling square sail, and before anyone says anything, yes, I think every boat should have one.

[cal40john]

I have friend who years ago owned a Formosa 41 that had been modified by a previous owner. One of the mods was to put a square course and a topsail on her. The topsail was furled using two dinghy jib roller furlers attached to either end of the top bolt rope under the yard. Never had to leave the deck for that sail. The course you had to go up the rigging to completely furl.

[Jolly Roger]

I considered the various methods I had seen for setting a fore course and explain them in the article thus:
I have been on boats with different arrangements of square sails. One hauled the sail outwards from the mast, along the yard on a track like curtain drapes. The other simply hoisted the sail at the outermost ends and in the middle of the yard. Both had serious drawbacks in that they could not be easily reefed. They were either up or down, and lowering or brailing them to the mastwas an “on deck” operation, not unlike dropping a large hanked-on Genoa on a run.
I also considered another method; using a regular headsail roller furling system mounted horizontally in front of a yard. This does allow progressive reefing, but the point-loads imposed on the ends of the yard necessitates a heavier spar. There is increased windage aloft and the sail remains exposed at all times.
I will be happy to answer any questions arising from the article.

[Sea Dreaming]

The subject is way over my head, no pun intended, but congrats on the article.