To furl or not to furl...

[pillum]

I just bought a boat, a sloop rigged aft cockpit 36' Westerly, and I need new sails. I'm pondering whether to buy a furling head-sail and furling gear, or to stick with a traditional hank-on system.

I'll be keeping her in the US/Caribbean for three years, and then sailing her to the Med.

Any experience related advice on use of furling sails for ocean passages will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Paul

[Wand]

You'll bring the hankers and the furlers out in force again with that hoary old chestnut. Then, armed with all the arguments, the decision will be no easier.

I'll jump in first and suggest that you sail awhile with the existing hank-on sails and see how you go. You might be one of us who like the tangible, salty (primitive?) approach to all things boating. On the other hand, you might decide to go with the masses and enjoy a quiet life in the cockpit.

If you make the latter decision, at least then you'll be able to justify the additional expenditure.

[Play Actor]

I agree with At Sea. Since you have the opportunity, you should try sailing for a while with hank-on sails. We tried it 15 years ago when a furler broke, because we happened to have a brand new hank on jib that had come with the boat. We discovered that she sailed better. She also rode better at anchor without the extra windage aloft from a furled headsail. We've been sailing with hank-on sails ever since, and wouldn't go back to furling, unless we quit cruising offshore and take up day sailing. The convenience of roller furling for short term deployment of a sail is a positive trade off against the possible problems.

If you like it, consider rigging a downhaul led aft. Then to drop the sail, you just head into the wind, cast off the halyard, and pull the downhaul to drop the sail neatly on deck without going all the way to the head stay to claw it down.

[SaucySailoress]

If you're not racing, then take the easy life... If you can afford it!

[witchcraft]

Since you have the choice, try what it is there first, with a down haul. The down haul makes lowering the head sail easy. It is possible to hae the sail re cut for furling later if you decide you dont like the hanked on sail.
One way suits some of us, while the other way suits some of us. Everything is a trade off on boats. Decide which trade you like best by trying it out.
Fair Winds

[JJB]

If we were to sail without furlers, we would need to carry a minimum of 10 or so people all the time with the size of the boat, but with the furlers if needs be I can sail single handed, I wouldn't want to do that but can if I have to, if I didn't have them sailing single handed on a boat the size of ours would be nigh impossible.
If you aren't racing and don't mind loosing a little speed go for it. It won't be an epic speed difference but you will notice.

[Ziggy]

Does your boat have an inner forestay? If so, I think you'll be happy with a furling headsail. But a real problem with furling sails is that they are difficult to change in a strong wind. If get a hank-on storm jib and a small working jib to use on the inner forestay and a 135 furling genoa on the outer forestay, you'll have the best of both worlds.

[Tbrad]

whut At Sea said!

[boatman61]

Benefits of Hank ons have been well covered here... but the PITA aspect has not... you cant get away with just one headsail... every time the wind increase's/decrease's its drag a bag forward... drop the sail.. hank on new sail... bag and drag back to the cockpit... likely hood it and you are going to be a bit soggy if its an increase and waters jumping over the bow.. so you now have to drag a soggy bag through your living room... or you've given up your V-berth as a sail locker in which case its down the forehatch.. bludi waves...
Your on your own... the above gets seriously boring after a while.. if you look around at the boats voyaging long distance the ratio is something like 1 in 500 hanks on.. thats for a reason... or two..
Safety
Energy conservation
Storage issue
Cost of initial fit out..
1 cruising chute, 1 genoa, No 1 jib, No 2 jib, No 3 jib, storm jib....
a midrange furler and multi purpose genoa works out to a little less...
I used to be a purist years back in my Macho I don't need an engine salty sailing days... but then I was not sailing 47 consecutive days across the Atlantic alone in those days.. I was hammering outa Poole harbour sneering at all the 'part time sailors' with their rollers... and usually back in that evening or just an overnite crossing to Cherbourgh.
But.... try going up front a few times crossing the Biscay with 7+ metre seas and 40+knot winds dragging a sail bag... getting slapped round the head by flailing sheets and clews... it takes the shine of being 'Salty' pretty quick.

[Jack Tar]

My wife and I sail and live on a Formosa 51. When we bought her the previous owner had removed the inner stay and staysail. We are re installing the staysail and using a furler on the head sail. It makes handling a lot easyer for short crew. Otherwise if I only had a headsail I would stay with hank on.

[Tia Bu]

My boat came equipped not only with furling headsail, but also with a CDI behind-the-mast roller furling main. I wouldn't have added the main furling myself, and frankly, wouldn't have bought a boat with it if the boat hadn't been such a great deal.

After a cruise to the Exumas and back, though, I think that furling main is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Extremely easy to hoist sail, furl it, and reef. All by myself. You lose a little bit of upwind performance. You almost make it all up, though, on downwind legs because it's so easy to tune the main to avoid blanketing the headsail.

If you're outfitting for cruising, I'd take a look at adding furling for the main, also.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by At sea

You'll bring the hankers and the furlers out in force again with that hoary old chestnut. Then, armed with all the arguments, the decision will be no easier.

I'll jump in first and suggest that you sail awhile with the existing hank-on sails and see how you go. You might be one of us who like the tangible, salty (primitive?) approach to all things boating. On the other hand, you might decide to go with the masses and enjoy a quiet life in the cockpit.

If you make the latter decision, at least then you'll be able to justify the additional expenditure.

Can't argue with this one bit. I have a hank on 33 foot sloop and a furling Yankee on a 41 foot cutter. The staysail on the cutter would never be furling for safety reasons, and for cost reasons the 33 foot sloop would never go furling (also, this boat has a huge J and points quite high and I wouldn't want to lose that).

At 36 feet, I'd be looking at my space considerations (the Westerly probably has loads of stowage and lockers), and I'd be looking at a lot of experimentation in blows to determine what's best. My crew size and length of sail would be of interest, as well. Your foresail is probably the size of mine, and it's possible and desirable in some situations to rig a light-line downhaul on the genoa and to run the halyard back to get the whole thing, if not flaked on deck, then down on the deck so it can be rolled up a bit and bungeed down securely.

Of course, you could also do as the racers do and have a doubled-slotted foil for tape-luff sails and send up a smaller sail as you bring down the larger, but that's for people with crews.

Lastly, I much prefer hank-ons in heavy weather, because with a No. 4 or storm jib out front and two reefs in the main, I can keep sailing to weather safely and in a balanced fashion, whereas with furling I lose all shape by the time a 110% is down to storm jib size. This is exactly why I wouldn't make a staysail furling...I am more likely to fly a smaller, heavier staysail than to furl an existing one to a useless shape.

Your usage and intentions may vary.