Dropping the foresail when the furler is busted

[Jdege]

I've been wondering - what is the usual recovery process when you have to get the foresail down and the furler is broken?

I mean, they're pretty simple, mechanically, but anything can fail.

[Tillsbury]

If it's out, just drop the sail old school. If it's partially furled, attempt to let it out completely then drop it. If you can't, let go the sheets and motor round in circles until it's furled then get to a port.

[JPA Cate]

It really depends on where is is broken. If it is the wire that has broken at the top, as once happened to us, we were able to furl the sail, sort of, by hand, and went to a mooring (we'd been sailing out of Santo in Vanuatu). There, we unwound the sail, and brought it down and folded it, and then, carefully lowered the foil onto some tourist toys that you sit on and paddle. We got permission from the resort, and borrowed their lawn to dismantle everything on. Friends shipped us out a new piece of wire, and we had the sta-loks and cones, so were able to put it back together. This happened before we learned 316 s/s furler wire mostly only lasts 4 yrs.

Another time, our staysail furler came agley, at the bottom end, again while under sail. Eventually, we were able to secure it, but there was no way to secure the sail, and it flogged itself to smithereens. Very sad. For those of you who wonder why it came away that way, it was on a Hyfield lever, that opened up, when its securing strap slipped.

The point is that the furler must still be attached at both the mast and the deck for the driving around in circles approach to work.

Ann