North Sails Rope Luff Furling

[sanibel sailor]

Anyone with experience with this? I just bought a clearance priced North Radian genoa that has it and it looks funky. Three pieces of braided polypropylene line about 1" or more diameter, run in a loose sleeve. Does not look like a real performance enhancer with a big chunk right at the leading edge.

Anyone have something like this?

[estarzinger]

It's fine.

The purpose is to create a better shape when the sail is partially furled. It does help quite a bit there, and lasts longer than foam in that application.

If you never partially furl the sail then you don't need it and would be slightly better without it. But the difference would be really minimal and only noticsble in a competitive racing environment.

We had a multiple 3dl jibs with this rope set-up and they performed very well - right on the boat's polars when fully out, and decent shape when partially furled (which we tried to avoid but did do occasionally).

[Mystic38]

as above..

its better than nothing.. and my view is that with full sail, i am doing enough speed that the aesthetics and performance hit are irrelevant.

The only negative i have is that by observation in my experience so far, I do feel however that the length and placement of these rope (or foam) luff pads do seem a little arbitrary ..

[barnakiel]

Seen the same method on Doyle sails and I consider this a crapshot. Our sails have foam luff.

I think having so much turbulence at the luff will degrade upwind ability. Possibly irrelevant beam and broad reaching.

Interestingly some North lofts use foam too. Not sure why the alternatives. Foam seems as cheap as polypro rope.

b.

[robert sailor]

Foam is OK in some areas but in areas that are wet in the winter or even areas that are wet with high temps in the summer are mold/mildew farms and that foam really allows that stuff to grow. In those areas the rope luff is a much better alternative, they both do a decent job of taking up some space in helping sail shape. Personally I prefer the rope luff as it does not compress and pack down over time and remains mold free

[Boston Blackie]

We had a North 3DL 135% #2 with the single pocket rope bulge. The leeward forward woolies would always flutter with the full area jib, and it was annoying at best. The 3DL melted down in the Marion Bermuda Race last year. This year we have replaced it with a Nordac 115% #2 jib topsail (Yankee). At my request they built the sail with three adjacent separate furling rope pockets so the ropes lie edge on. WORKS A TREAT! No more induced luff turbulence, and same net effect when we reef down. Beautiful fast performance cruising jib!

[CGirvan]

Originally Posted by Boston Blackie

We had a North 3DL 135% #2 with the single pocket rope bulge. The leeward forward woolies would always flutter with the full area jib, and it was annoying at best. The 3DL melted down in the Marion Bermuda Race last year. This year we have replaced it with a Nordac 115% #2 jib topsail (Yankee). At my request they built the sail with three adjacent separate furling rope pockets so the ropes lie edge on. WORKS A TREAT! No more induced luff turbulence, and same net effect when we reef down. Beautiful fast performance cruising jib!

This sounds really useful, could you post photos or diagrams of how this was done.

[Boston Blackie]

Here is a shot looking up the luff. The 3 pockets are just 4 parallel rows of stitching in the fabric strip aft of the luff tape. Not visible, but the new sail also has grommets every meter or so for gaskets to prevent the luff tape from pulling out of the foil in heavy air.

[Boston Blackie]

OOPs. Here it is. (Needed more backstay tension.)

[Andrew MacKenzie]

Originally Posted by Boston Blackie

OOPs. Here it is. (Needed more backstay tension.)

I have a single tapered rope in a sleeve (fitted by Quantum, now Ullman Sails in Cape Town) in a 140% genoa on my 31ft Miura cruiser/racer. Superb; sail sets perfectly with even about 3 foot furled. Would buy the same again without any hesitation.

[CGirvan]

Originally Posted by Boston Blackie

Here is a shot looking up the luff. The 3 pockets are just 4 parallel rows of stitching in the fabric strip aft of the luff tape. Not visible, but the new sail also has grommets every meter or so for gaskets to prevent the luff tape from pulling out of the foil in heavy air.

What percentage of the luff length are the 3 lines in the sleeves. The reason I ask is that this sounds like a reasonable retrofit to an existing sail. I've never had a sail with a similar set up but I have had to deal with a partially furled baggy sail.

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by CGirvan

What percentage of the luff length are the 3 lines in the sleeves. The reason I ask is that this sounds like a reasonable retrofit to an existing sail. I've never had a sail with a similar set up but I have had to deal with a partially furled baggy sail.

^^ we had three pockets/three ropes, each different length. I guess in theory the pocket lengths would depend a bit on sail draft/shape. I never measured ours but very rough guess first/closest to luff was 85%, second 75%, third 65%.. . . Perhaps the first one was longer than that.

[Pauls]

The round rope in a sleeve helps the sail performance. A radius at the leading edge improves airflow over a foil, so long as the sail behind the radius can pivot around to give a smooth flow on the lee side, which a sleeve allows. Look at all subsonic aircraft - there are no sharp leading edges.