boom furling

[lancelots]

Hello to all the friendly cruising crews out there.

No doubt I’m going to cop flak from all sides for asking what will appear on the surface to be a stupid questions, all I can say is damn the torpedoes full steam ahead!

Ok, so boom furling on a catamaran is a bad thing with their fully battened shaped sails and big roach, hmmm could some of the problems with the sail be overcome by rigging a cat ketch style hence making the sails a little smaller and perhaps with less shape and roach and there fore easier for the boom furler to handle he sail? We are talking about building a 50 foot plus cat and this is one of the sticking points.

Lancelot

[Caribsailors]

I crewed on a 54' Farr 18 months out of the factory during an around the island Easter regatta 5 years ago.

After we were done racing, we were putting things away and the biggest time consumer and head ach was the in boom furling.

I remember the owner saying " Here I have six figure boat set up for single handing..... and I have three guys stowing my main!"

Not for me

Cheers

[lancelots]

Thanks for the reply but the real question was

could some of the problems with the sail be overcome by rigging a cat ketch style hence making the sails a little smaller and perhaps with less shape and roach and there fore easier for the boom furler to handle he sail?

[roverhi]

Wind velocity increases significantly as you rise above the water. A taller mast is going to see a lot more wind and provide more propulsion, even with the reduced area at the top of the sail, in light wind conditions. A cat ketch will have larger sail area but presumably shorter sticks so will be handicapped in light air condtions. The cat ketch mas sail faster with ample winds, however.

I looked at a Corsair 31 yesterday and was surprized to see it had a roller reefing boom for the main. That's roller reefing not in-boom furling. I thought we'd given up the idiocy of roller reefing booms in the '70s. They are a solution for a problem that had already been solved and do the job infinitely worse and with more work.

Aloha
Peter O.

[lancelots]

Not to concerned by a loss of speed at this stage more with could some of the problems with the sail be overcome by rigging a cat ketch style hence making the sails a little smaller and perhaps with less shape and roach and there fore easier for the boom furler to handle the sail?

Cheers Lancelot

[btrayfors]

Lancelot,

Modern in-boom furlers are reliable and work just fine on catamarans. No need to change your rig. They accommodate fully battened mains with big roaches just fine.

I've had a LeisureFurl system for five years on my 42' sloop (monohull) and after many thousands of sea miles and inland sailing I love it. My main is fully battened and has a large roach.

Here, from the LeisureFurl website and a 48' catamaran owner:

Quote
I wanted to let you know how happy I am with your Leisure Furl system. I have a 48' catamaran. As you know I sailed it to New Zealand from the USA. One of the concerns we had was reefing the mainsail. It seems that storms blow up at night and my wife use to worry every time I would go up on deck to reef the mainsail in the pitch black and stormy night. It always took the two of us to do this task. I had a jiffy reef system but it still took an effort to reef. So naturally you put it off to the last minute or after you put in a reef you were hesitant to take it out again. After 12,000 blue water miles I decided upon arriving in New Zealand to look into a furling main system.
I looked into many options, and then I meet you at the boat show. Boy was I fortunate! You installed my new Leisure Furl system in time for us to leave for the 1992 season. We went to Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, and back to New Zealand. What a joy it was to use Leisure Furl. I can now reef and un-reef my mainsail by myself from the cockpit. I never have to go on deck since my jib is roller furling also. It is a snap to put the main up or down at a flip of a switch. I always get a kick out of wowing off as we leave port with several boats. They have people on deck struggling to get their main up and I just sit in my captains's chair with drink in hand and raise my main. It just blows their minds, I love it.

We never had a problem with the system on the whole trip and I feel it is one of the best investments I have ever made in my boat. There is no price on safety at sea. I consider this system an essential safety system for the boat. I am happy for you to use this letter in any way that may help you with a customer that is not quite sure about your system.

All I can say is I LOVE IT!!! Thanks again for introducing me to your fantastic Leisure Furl system.

Captain Darryl Wheeler
Unquote


Bill

[lancelots]

Bill

Well thanks for that Bill it is very rare that I have heard anything good said about in-boom furlers on a cat and have been told by lots of people that they never work especially when the wind is hitting twenty which is precisely when you want it to work.

Cheers Lancelots

[camaraderie]

Lancelot...no Cat here but I had a Schaeffer boom furler installed on a 52' boat with full battens and good roach. Worked perfectly and I feel about it just like Trayfors. The fully articulating sail track makes reefing on or off the wind no problem even in heavier weather but you tend to reef a bit earlier because it is easy. Just as in the early days of genny furlers...there was a learning curve and lots of different attempts to build good boom furlers...and mistakes made. Thus...boats on the used market can still have these less than optimal systems. I've never heard of anyone with the Leisure Furl or the Schaeffer being unhappy and there may be other good systems on the market now. Count me as a total convert.

[lancelots]

Thanks Cam,

This is tending to confirm my thoughts that good engineering has mastered the furl although I did notice in a leisure furl video that they turned into the wind to take the pressure off the main before they furled hmmm, perhaps the jury is still out, and I don't know nearly as much as I need to to make an informed decision having never used one myself.

Cheers Lancelots

[xxuxx]

Originally Posted by lancelots

Not to concerned by a loss of speed at this stage more with could some of the problems with the sail be overcome by rigging a cat ketch style hence making the sails a little smaller and perhaps with less shape and roach and there fore easier for the boom furler to handle the sail?

Cheers Lancelot

Have you thought about re-sale on something so ugly and unprototypical?? What about actual vessel sailing ability being hampered? So much so that no-one would want you vessel when you are through with her, not to mention the lack of physical beauty. What are you thinkin.....Lance??? Methinks its a horrendous idea

[Aussiesuede]

Originally Posted by lancelots

Thanks for the reply but the real question was

could some of the problems with the sail be overcome by rigging a cat ketch style hence making the sails a little smaller and perhaps with less shape and roach and there fore easier for the boom furler to handle he sail?

On a cat in the 50 ft range, as you suggest, you'll end up with the aft mast smack dab in the middle of the cockpit lounge. Other than the space it would make unusable, you'd also pretty much eliminate the ability to use solar panels. I'd find it difficult to design a ketch rigged catamaran, that would make for a comfortable cruising boat, anything smaller than 60 feet.

[lancelots]

Hi xxuxx


Re-sailing it yes resale no, the actual sailing ability of ketch rigged cats seems quit good, and with smaller sails is very manageable single handed for large cats, from what I’ve read, and as for beauty well that’s in the eye of the beholder me thinks and I’m more interested in practicality over physical beauty so that I may spend many years sailing not sitting in the marina being admired but I’ll take your comments into consideration as they do have merit to be considered.


Cheers Lancelots

[lancelots]

Thanks Aussiesuede

Great comments, I was thinking at around the 54 foot mark I might have had some success with the rig but I need to overcome the problem of furling before I can take that it any further.

Cheers Lancelot