Schaffer Rig Furling

[Hudson Force]

I have one of those archaic Schaffer Rig furling systems that I hear many people frown upon, but it's done me well for 31 years and I like the option of dropping it quickly or hanking a sail on with it as those would do with a Solent Rig. The old Schaffer rig is a furling genoa drawn up on a wire rope separate from the headstay. It doesn't produce as tight a leading edge and is not a performance plan, but it's been good for me.

Today, while we were crossing the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina with about 10-15 off the beam I noticed that the luff looked a little slack so I winched it up tighter. When I did this several peices fell from the masthead and this one remained on deck.




You can see it's a plastic peice of the block that accepted the wire rope from the pair of blocks at the head of the sail. The other one is metal. I'm amazed that this one has lastest 31+ (maybe 42 years) at this service.

I like my Schaffer rig and I'm not going to replace it with a traditional furling rig because I would lose my "second stay" and the option to hank on a working jib with my self-tending club foot jib.

So, I'm thinking of replacing this current broken block and exchanging my wire rope spliced to line on the Schaffer rig with all dynema. ... but then maybe this would not work because the leading edge of my genoa likely needs the stiffness of the wire to furl with the bearings at the tack and the head. I think I could keep the wire luff on the genoa and still raise the rig with the dyneema. Maybe my simplist choice is the keep the wire to line splice and the wire luff inside the genoa.

What do those keep on the luff of those code zeros that are flying separate from the headstay? Something like dynema?

My simplest fix will be to replace this broken piece with a metal block and continue as in the past 31 fully functional years.
...any thoughts?

[Sailmonkey]

Furling luffs for code zeros are made from anti torsion line

http://www.mauriprosailing.com/us/ca...sion-Line.html


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[Hudson Force]

Thanks, Sailmonkey. This use of the anti-torsion line at the luff of the code zeros confirms my thought of keeping the stainless steel cable within the luff of the genoa on my Schaffer furling. The bearing at head of the sail is hooked onto the headstay in a manner that prevents the halyard above from twisting; therefore, I think I could replace the wire rope that is spliced to dacron from this point on with Dyneema.

Replacing the approximate 120' of stainless wire rope that now spans more than twice the length of my headstay when I lower my furling genoa would mean removing a lot of "old technology" weight from my rigging. I would have the Dyneema that replaces this wire rope sitting on these blocks in place almost all the time as I don't frequently lower my head sail furling. What about points of chafe where the Dyneema would sit at the bend over the blocks with slight movement of the furling rocking with the wind or the point where I decide to pull the Dyneema halyard away from my mast so it's not slapping through the night?

Some of us old codgers are wary of new technology and find it difficult to change our ways. What would be my best practice and behavior to allow my Dyneema to last with this application? What size Dyneema or equivalent line would be best? I find most of my running rigging line is thicker than necessary just to be comfortable in hand.

[Sailmonkey]

If the blocks are properly smooth and without sharp edges the dyneema won't chafe.....but if you try to run it over a an old wire rope block it'll more than likely chafe. Another consideration when switching to dyneema is that during the beginning of its life it's going to creep a lot. Not a big deal if you have a way to tighten it back up.


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