Dual Jib Furlers - Why Not?

[donal]

Take a look at a Reefrite furler. They have you convert your sails to use slugs. And they make a section at the bottom of the extrusion that can be turned out to slide all the slugs in. Then the sail(s) goes up easy. Ingenious. And the mechanics are superb. From NZ. My next upgrade. reefrite.com

[nwdiver]

I have seen two matched fore sails on furlers, one at the bow the other 3 feet forward on a spit, the bow one was the one always used except down wind when they were both used and poled out, both were 130s........this was on a 48 ft steel cruiser.......

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by nwdiver

I have seen two matched fore sails on furlers, one at the bow the other 3 feet forward on a spit, the bow one was the one always used except down wind when they were both used and poled out, both were 130s........this was on a 48 ft steel cruiser.......

On another thread I just started on downwind poles, this Amels solution to easily capture and furl/reduce both downwind sails on one furler was very elegant.

See details here

https://fetchinketch.net/2016/06/26/...d-sailing-rig/

[Navi2016]

https://www.riggingdoctor.com/life-a...twin-headstays

Workable, but does have some good and bad points

[txg]

Originally Posted by Navi2016

https://www.riggingdoctor.com/life-a...twin-headstays

Workable, but does have some good and bad points

Our boat has parallel twin headstays and while it is true that this has an impact on upwind performance, it is not as bad as stated in this blog post. We sailed our boat for about 10k nm now with quite some upwind sailing in it and it works fine. I would guess that a 80% jib on a twin headstay works at least as good, probably even better than a 130% genoa furled down to 80%.

The problem of hanks catching the other stay happens mostly with the modern one-hand hanks, and only very seldomly with the traditional ones.

[Flint]

Sorry I didn't read all 50 posts....

Has anyone considered that with side-by-side furlers the sheets from one head sail while furled up will block/interfere with the headsail that would be in use?

....maybe?

cheers

[NorthPacific]

I am looking at using a twizzle or twizzeler rig. 2 head sails from a single head sail furler. 2 whisker poles which float free of the mast, have seen a video and read elsewhere on the ease of use.

[NorthPacific]

Link to video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy53gIOrE40

and another

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpr3r3Fw18

[hellosailor]

Sounds like you plan to be sailing dead downwind basically wing on wing. Just FWIW, while that can appear to be the fastest way to go, most modern hulls & rigs will actually get there faster by gybing off and running downwind the longer way. Yes, it is a longer course--but you'd have to check the polars and your hull to see if it isn't also faster than actually going dead downwind. This is a case where "gut instinct" frequently loses out to "do the math". I'd want to do that before investing in the twin headsails and poles and rigging for them.

[NorthPacific]

Firstly each to their own.

As the video explains second hand sail, whisker pole and a bit of rope is the expense. In my experience when tradewind sailing down wind main sail chafe can be a large expense, He does state that he uses the set up 30 to 40 degrees off the wind.

In my experience of extended traded wind sailing safe and simple is always a great seller. Again from my experience shortening my mainsail sail when running is a a pain and can be dangerous.

[Snowpetrel]

The tiny sailing research Vessel 'Totorore' was fitted with twin identical furlers port and starboard. Gerry Clark ran twin genoas and used two poles to run downwind easily. When going to windward he generally used the leeward sail. It worked for him. Though I think when he rerigged her in freemantle after his incredible 3 year southern ocean bird survey after a dismasting in the indian ocean he may have gone back to a single furler.

Twin furlers come at a huge cost in windage forward where it hurts the most and weight aloft. It doesn't have the big benefit of the solant rig where each sail has a different wind range, and like all twin headstay systems it can cause problems with rig tension.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Sounds like you plan to be sailing dead downwind basically wing on wing. Just FWIW, while that can appear to be the fastest way to go, most modern hulls & rigs will actually get there faster by gybing off and running downwind the longer way. Yes, it is a longer course--but you'd have to check the polars and your hull to see if it isn't also faster than actually going dead downwind. This is a case where "gut instinct" frequently loses out to "do the math". I'd want to do that before investing in the twin headsails and poles and rigging for them.

I'm not so sure that typical cruising boats, even most modern ones, will benefit from sailing hotter angles in any reasonable wind strength. In the trades, wing and wing DDW will produce speeds near to hull speed in most boats. Few cruising boats, especially when loaded for passage making, will exceed that speed by heading up a bit. Polars as typically supplied by builders (if any) are for ideal conditions with an empty boat and new sails, precisely trimmed and with a large sprinkling of hyperbole topping it off. Reality is a grimmer picture IME.

Jim

[rgleason]

Has anyone considered that with side-by-side furlers the sheets from one head sail while furled up will block/interfere with the headsail that would be in use?

Yes, they do. It is workable. One approach is to have a sheet bag at bowsprit for the unused jib. This arrangement and the other solutions which deal with the crossed inner jib sheets all require bow activity.