Code 0 type sails staying hoisted for days

[Bay Breeze]

We have a light asymmetrical spinnaker on a code 0. Have not had a lot of luck keeping it furled if the wind picks up, so we end up taking it down and untangling. After a few times doing this we decided to put It up Only when we need it and stow after sailing.

[kathy5555555]

My husband an I have been researching this exact question for our new Cat. Sure you can do top down furling but will you use the sail less? What type of sailing are you doing? We want to buy a high quality continuous line furler that will stay on our bow sprit. This will make it almost as easy as using a head sail to use our screecher (similar to code 0) and the furler we are looking at also allows us to attach our spinnaker on the same furler. The down side is you may have to modify or replace your existing sails and the furlers are pricey. Look at Facnor and Harken.

[b_rodwell]

My vote is for:

1. Only install a sail that is flat like a genoa. As large as possible though.
2. No UV strips.
3. A sock to cover it.
4. Leave it up apart from when you expect a hurricane or cyclone. (I don't sail to windward very often.)
5. Use a conventional aluminium foil to wrap the sail around.

Point 6. is an issue I am still pondering. It is this. I am inclined to say I would not use a continuous line furler, but would use a single line drum like a conventional furler for a genoa.

I would be interested in your thoughts about this last issue.

Brian (ex '6-year-liveaboard' 'round-the-the-(half)-world' sailor)

[gagrant]

I have a 44 ft cutter that is very heavy(18,000kg displacement) My code zero is a laminate and due to the size it is heavy, but the best sail I have for much of the summer. I can go into wind very nicely and have used a whisker pole on the downwind to creep a little closer to 180. Some use a lighter tri-reacher pole for this. I can also disconnect the top and bottom put the rolled code zero on its torsion shaft into a bag and connect a asymmetrical spinnaker to the same hardware. Getting the code zero in bag onto the deck single handed is a real pain. I have a winter UV cover for my genoa that perfectly fits over it. This cover was for a previous headsail that had no UV cover. I use a second halyard to raise it and it has 2 zippers. One for the first 1/2 and one for the second. I have done it single handed while moving by using a pulley at the mast base to bring the extra spinnaker halyard forward to the furler. No questions though, if there was a big blow predicted I would drop it all to the deck and bag. It would certainly increase windage significantly. If I am out in the summer for a couple of weeks my code zero stays up ready to deploy, but i leave it up only when I am on the boat. I try to avoid taking down or putting up the cover my myself under motion as a bit challenging out on the front of the boat with an open clutch for the halyard. I would now never be without a code zero because it certainly cuts my engine use in the light winds we see in the summer.
Cheers.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by b_rodwell

My vote is for:

1. Only install a sail that is flat like a genoa. As large as possible though.
2. No UV strips.
3. A sock to cover it.
4. Leave it up apart from when you expect a hurricane or cyclone. (I don't sail to windward very often.)
5. Use a conventional aluminium foil to wrap the sail around.

Point 6. is an issue I am still pondering. It is this. I am inclined to say I would not use a continuous line furler, but would use a single line drum like a conventional furler for a genoa.

I would be interested in your thoughts about this last issue.

Brian (ex '6-year-liveaboard' 'round-the-the-(half)-world' sailor)

1. You vote for a screecher, OK. There are other choices too.
2. You want a relatively light screecher so no extra UV cloth, makes sense.
3. PITA, but necessary since you want to do 4.
4. Leaving it up depends on the windage it presents and load on the rig. For example, our reefing guide says to remove the furled sail at 25+ knots. But if you don’t sail to windward very often, why a flat screecher? Wouldn’t a fuller Code 0 make more sense for reaching?
5. ??????? If you use a conventional furler with a fixed aluminium foil then you are talking about a permanent installation, like for a regular genoa. It requires a permanent forestay and lots of extra weight. Is that what you mean?
6. Single line drums are fine, as long as the foot length is not too long. At some point, if the foot is too long, the single line will fill up on the drum and you won’t be able to continue furling the sail. That’s why the continuous furling line was developed. So it totally depends on how big the sail will be and whether the furling line is small enough and the drum big enough to hold all the needed furling line.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by kathy5555555

My husband an I have been researching this exact question for our new Cat. Sure you can do top down furling but will you use the sail less? What type of sailing are you doing? We want to buy a high quality continuous line furler that will stay on our bow sprit. This will make it almost as easy as using a head sail to use our screecher (similar to code 0) and the furler we are looking at also allows us to attach our spinnaker on the same furler. The down side is you may have to modify or replace your existing sails and the furlers are pricey. Look at Facnor and Harken.

It sounds like you are referring to a top down adapter that replaces the top swivel and uses the same bottom up lower swivel and drum, like this? https://www.sail-world.com/news/2102...ng-units-value

Reasonable solution to save some money and have both types of sails. The only caveat will be that you’ll need to oversize your lower unit to handle the larger torsion cable needed by the top down sail.

Not sure what you mean about using a top down furling sail less? If that’s your downwind spinnaker sail, it will be used whenever you need it, won’t it? You wouldn’t use it was just because it’s on a top down furler vs with a sock, would you? Arguably, you’d use the top down furler more often as it’s easier to set and take down.

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

We have a heavy strong flat code 0 of 80 m2 on our catamaran. Triradial cut Hydranet, with thin Sunbrella UV protection.

It is on a Facnor FX4500 continuous furler, with anti-torsion line. The continuous furling line goes back to the cockpit, next to the code 0 sheet winch. The furling line goes through 2 clutches. (to prevent accidental unfurling). We can use the winch also to furl.

We use it up till 55 degrees apparent wind, when the sheets will just touch the standing rigging. We use it until 18 knots apparent wind.
It is also used in butterfly with mainsail or genoa.
If I did the installation again, I would buy one size bigger furler.



We left it up 1.5 years from Thailand to Sydney to New Zealand to the Marquesas and back to New Zealand. 16700 nm.

One problem I did not read here:
To keep the furled sail from moving around too much by wave action, the luff needs to be pretty tight. This reduces the tension on the genoa and cutter sail forestays. So the aluminium foils of these sails start to move around more, leading to wear of the foil segments and segment couplings of the genoa furling system.
My conclusion is that keeping the code 0 up all the time should be taken into consideration by the rig designer of the yacht. If the rig designer does not take this into account, this is the kind of issue you can run into.

This is probably more an issue for catamaran than for monohulls; rig tension is in most cases lower on catamarans.



Also there are the other issues mentioned here:
- Risk of unfurling
- Loss of upwind performance by wind resistance and deterioration of air flow
- Weight up high



The conclusion was to drop the sail when not used. Since furled it is too stiff and big to fit in a locker, we had a 3 meter long sailbag made which is attached on the trampoline next to the central beam. At the bottom side it has a mesh, to drain.
This way we can quickly lower and raise it. Using an electric winch.
The facnor has quick-release couplings.

When the sail is dropped, the torsion line of our old gennaker is in place of the sail.


Probably when we return to the flat-water light-wind sailing of the intertropical convergency zone of SE Asia, we will sometimes leave it up. But not in the trade-winds open-ocean sailing where we are now, in French Polynesia.



Hope this is useful information.
Regards

[Triumph]

I'm selling one with a 42 foot overall luff dimension if you are interested.