Hank On or Furling Head Sails

[Red Horse]

Hi folks,
I currently have a furling system on my boat. I am changing from a ketch to a cutter. The choice of course is furling or hank on head sails for cruising.
Any advice why you like or dislike either?
thanks
Rich

[Pete7]

Rich, just to confuse you we carry both. However, for cruising furling sails will make life much easier rather than constantly having to go to the bows to change headsails.

Our hank on sails are a storm sail which needs to be completely independant of the furling system and a No 2 hank on incase the genoa blows out. Both hank on sails use a separate dyneema forestay.

Peter

[bangkaboat]

Rich,
The only reason I don't have a furler, yet, is that it's on my "wish" list, not my "have to have" list, and, as you know, there is always something to spend money on with boats. It just makes life easier & safer, imo.
Mike

[klubko]

We have genoa on a furler, staysail hank on. That way you save storage space that a big genoa requires and of course your partner might not be up to handling as big a sail.
Smaller hank on jib (we have two reefs on it) is easy to handle for everyone and you can easily switch to storm jib. This setting is perfect especially on a boat which is many a time handled only by single person.

[Gracies]

Hi Great Topic, as i was going to ask opinions myself on furling vs hank on.

I have just installed a new furling system for the genny, and a hank on staysail which doubles as the stay for storm sails. The only reason i change was also that for me was on a 6m boat i had no space to store the orginal hank on yankee 1 + 2.

The benefits already are great because with a few good pulls on the furling line i can get the sail in in seconds. My only concern is that in really stong winds there is nothing better than the high cut of a yankee compared to a furled genny. And also with a furler getting your sail down if you need to bare pole is a nightmare. And having the canvas at the bow ready to be rippèd open by a strong gust does scare me.

Lastly the only other problem is that there are a few issues with the extra components, maintaince time obviously increases, and therefore so do costs.

[pillum]

I have the same dilemma, I just got some sail quotes and I think I'm going to go for a furler, for the first time! At 59, and quite fit for my age I'm OK with hanks, but I'm not going to get younger or fitter, and I intend to do some singlehanding in the gulf and the Caribbean. I'll hang onto my hanked sails though, you never know...

Anyone got experience with the storm jib that slides over the furled sail?

[Gracies]

Once on delivery used a storm jib which went around the furled foresail. The big drama was having to remove the genoa sheets in order to slide the storm jib up, also the shape of the luff is horrible and we lost any ability to keep pointing! I reccomend having a baby stay for a hank on storm jib

[boatman61]

Have had both.. prefer RF tho.. as has been said above it makes life a lot easier if short handed or an old buga like me.... also got fed up of shoving wet sails down the forehatch on bouncy nights in the channel... one basiclly lose's the forecabin on smaller boats to sail bags if you carry the full set...
Currently have a 'Hank on Roller'.. Took the hanks off my sails and fitted slides.... works fine for me on the Genoa.... and storm jib on a removable inner

[ozskipper]

Generally, your pointing ability will be improved immensely with hank on sails. So if your racing or have a performance boat, sure, stick with hanks. But for cuising, furlers are much nicer. You dont need people on the bow to hoist and drop in a blow. You can reef down in seconds rather than doing a headsail change- as long as the bugger doesnt jam.

The big downside is if you need to go to storm sails, you still have to get the big sail off. Although there are some methods of hoising a storm sail over a furled headsail, my opinion is that I would rather have the big one safely below, when the wind is strong enough for storm sails.

It may be an option to leave the Genny on the furler and just use hanks on the staysail.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Red Horse

Hi folks,
I currently have a furling system on my boat. I am changing from a ketch to a cutter. The choice of course is furling or hank on head sails for cruising.
Any advice why you like or dislike either?
thanks
Rich

I have a cutter with roller reefing yankee and hank on staysail with set of reefs.
Love it.
Yankee can come in or out in seconds and if wind pipes up a bit it will get rolled up safe with a reefed main and staysail keeping the force low and close to the centre of the boat.
Apart from budget on a cutter I can't really see much of an argument against roller reefing on a cruising boat.

[SaucySailoress]

Furling, furling , furling!

[ADMPRTR]

Or previous boat had hank on. I liked the pointing ability and being able to put on the right sail for the conditions. The problem was when the conditions were not anticipated correctly and we either under or over powered and I would have to change sails in potentially dangerous conditions. I also disliked the need to find space to store the sails although there are solutions for that.

Our current boat came with furling, but I soon discovered that it was at end of life (rusted bearrings) and we had difficulty furling it (once ripped the sail as a result). For a replacement, I considered going with hank on (we needed to change the sail anyway) but decided to find the $$$ to replace the furling with a new unit. The convenience was the main decider although the cost was a problem.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by ozskipper

Generally, your pointing ability will be improved immensely with hank on sails.

But this is because the sail you have on the furler is generally not the sail you would have chosen if you had a several hanked-on sails in your inventory.

Racing boats often have their headsails with lufftapes, in foils on the headstay. This is essentially the same arrangement as the furler. A properly-sized sail on a furler is as good or better at pointing than a hanked sail.

It's when you use the furler to reef down a large headsail that the pointing ability is degraded. And generally, that's what those of us with furlers do.

Now that I'm done being pedantic, I have roller-furling genoa and staysail, and the convenience is great. I carry one of those ATN "wrap-around" storm jibs, sized for the staysail, but I've never used it in anger. My staysail, partially furled if necessary, has served me well in full-gale conditions, and I've never been in a real storm.

[SV Liberty]

Furling. Absolutely.

This week, making a short offshore passage from Lake Worth to Cape Canaveral, strong line of T-storms showed up, skies got dark, about a 10 mile long line on radar and we were right at the middle, about 6 miles offshore or so, as it tracked ENE. No way to know hard the winds would blow (NOAA and USCG had not yet started broadcasting the weather alerts - they only ame after, of course). We reefed the mizzen (no main up b/c we were well off the wind) and as soon as gusts started we furled in the jib partway. Turned on engine too. As winds passed thru 30 kts, then 40 kts, we furled in almost all of the jib - just a scrap out. When winds got above 50 kts we furled in the rest of the jib and motoredsailed, low RPMs, with reefed mizzen, about 60 degrees off the wind. When winds started gusting over 60 kts, we just hung on, and as it abated back to 35-45 kts we let out a scrap of jib, dialed back the engine, and kept slowly motorsailing about 60 degrees off the wind as the storm blew past us. All of the above, from first chilly gust to sustained 40-50+ winds and gusts over 60 kts, took about 3 minutes to occur, and a few minutes later we were able to furl out the hankie of jib. At some point both kids went below, and wife and I just sailed along holding on.

2 hours later we did it all again, but this time the top gusts were just in the 50s.

I can't even begin to imagine having to be on the foredeck dealing with hank on sails, or what my wife would do if I got tossed over and was hanging by my tether banging on the side of the boat. I did once have to go to the main mast to drop the mainsail when a similar squall hit us on the bahama banks, and I and the entire family were quite frightened during the entire process.

Furling. Absolutely.

Unless you're maybe sailing with a really big disposable race crew. But you said cruising.

My two cents.

[MarkJ]

Last time I used hank on foresails was in the 1970's. They worked fine then! So I guess you can have hank on if you like.

The rest of the cruisers have progressed to furlers, of course.


Looking out the hatch here in Grenada (Caribbean) there are 37 yachts in this bay of which 35 have furlers. 2 use hank on jibs: one is derilict about 22 feet long, the other is a small 28 foot classic boat with bowsprit etc.

All the cutters here have furling staysails.