Jib furlers

[AZ-Oldguy]

My hood Seafurl bearings have recently failed me, and I am looking at my options. I see that there are some furlers that don't use a luff Extrusion, but instead seem to have a top bearing attached to the halyard and bottom Furler attached to the deck and the bottom of the sail with a wire in the luff of the sail. Does this work for a standard hundred percent jib. Do people have any recommendations? I am not anxious to replace the headstay or turnbucles which seems to be necessary for many of the replacement systems. Glenn

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[roverhi]

If you are talking strictly furling, a wire/Dyneema luff furler will work just fine. If you want to reef the sail, you'll need a furler with extrusions to keep the top, bottom and middle of the sail in sync. as it is reefed.

There are furlers that you don't have to replace the headstay to fit. Believe Alado is one. You can do it with the old Hood Seafurl's but have to separate each section of the foil and refit the plastic bearings at the joints. Something we found extremely hard to accomplish as the pushpins didn't want to push on the old furler to separate the foil sections. Profurl requires cutting the end terminal off and reinstalling a new StaLok. Easy to do if you've got enough take up on the turnbuckle. Have done it with mine once to replace the top swivel but just about out of turnbuckle threads to do it a second time. Don't know about Schaeffer, Harken, etc.

[AZ-Oldguy]

Thanks for getting back to me Roverhi, at the beginning of this season I did take apart and remove and replace my hood SeaFurl, furler to inspect theforestay and turnbuckles. they all seemed fine, but the bearings in the drum were very stiff at the time and over the summer they have finally ceased to turn without a lot of force. As I have a cutter, I am thinking I can Reef easily Enough by changing sails dropping or changing the jib and sailing with the staysail, and I am not all that enamored of reefing headsail by rolling it up anyway. Can you tell me more or perhaps give me some brand names of systems that use a dyneema or wire luff tape. I assume that the sail furler is attached to behind the head stay, and one would remove the Luff tape that is currently on it and have a piece of wire or dyneema sewn into the love of the sail. Can you tell me anything more about these systems?

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[Snowpetrel]

Look up structural furlers. If it were me though Id rather go for a solid furler like the alado or the reefurl. Even if you dont routinely reef the sail they just work very well, and sometimes being able to unroll a corner of the sail can be handy.

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[Schooner Chandlery]

Traditional wire luff furlers have been around since Victorian times. Now Dyneema luff furlers work the same way. One of the very nice bits about having a wire luff (or Dyneema luff) furler is that you can furl a sail and drop it on deck, hoist another of a different size quite easily. Better than both hanked on sails and sails on a roller reefer IMO. You'll find more modern styles of wire luff furlers for more modern boats--in particular furlers without a drum, but in the Schooner Chandlery we carry a nice old-style wire luff furler by Wykeham Martin in bronze for traditional boats. https://schoonerchandlery.com/shop/m...davey-company/

[AZ-Oldguy]

I noticed on one web page that the halyard went down through a block at the top of the Furler and then returned to the Mast just below where the hell your exits the mast. This provides a stronger pull at the top of the sail. How necessary is this? Is this necessary on larger sales or on a Genoa?

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[UNCIVILIZED]

Generally with Structural Furlers you need to have a much higher halyard tension, just as on a True (Racing) Code Zero. Because the halyard is doing the job of both the stay, as well as that of a halyard. So the loadings on them can be much higher, thus necessitating a purchase system on the halyard, & possibly on the tack of the sail/furler at deck level as well. Which puts a lot more loading onto the spar, as well as the boat. Plus the sail. And it also necessitates a different sail shape design, to even come close to the upwind ability of a standard jib/genoa.


With Code 0's it's common to have a multi-part purchase on the halyard, as well as monsterous backstay loads as well in order to get decent luff tension on the sails. Which produces significantly higher rigging loads than anywhere on the boat. To the point where boats get bent, & sometimes broken by such loads if the crew goes wild tensioning things.


Though even with this, loose luffed headsails can't point like standard ones do. So you'd be best going with a regular furler.

[Snowpetrel]

As I understand it a true structural furler either locks the halyard off at the top, or more commonly the wire and the top swivel are permenantly attached to the mast. This reduces the compression loadings to the same as a normal system. Often they use a halyatd swivel and hanks to raise and lower the sail on the wire stay.

As opposed to say a code zero or loose luff type furler where the whole bundle is dropped on a halyard. Without a halyard lock these systems generate big loads or end up with saggy luffs, but are still very useful, esp in light airs and reaching, or to furl a asymetric kite.

http://www.sailmagazine.com/diy/sails/furl-it-up/



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[UNCIVILIZED]

You could definitely be right on this. As my brain's low on 'trons (electrons) today for sure.
That said, for anyone entertaining Code 0's, be sure that you & the sailmaker are using the same language. As a "Cruising" Code 0 is simply an asymetric optimized for closer reaching than other cuts of A-sails, but it won't touch the wind angles of a true Code 0. And the latter is a highly specialized, & expensive sail. When you add up the sail's cost, plus all that's needed to properly fly it.


Something also worth researching, & budgeting for with a Structural Furler, & all of the bits which go with.