Do you leave your screecher hoisted?

[LAGO]

My screecher is 97m2 on a continuous line furler. it is quite a big roll and heavy to handle on deck. So I leave it aloft. I'm sure this big fat roll is messing up the airflow over the Genoa And in lumpy seas the roll flops back and forth violently and will one day break at the tack or head. I have changed the shackles. I tighten the halyard to reduce movement of the sail.

My question is: Do you leave your screecher hoisted?
Thanks

[Tin Tin]

No. When furled it takes 5 minutes to drop or less. What I used to do is is open a hatch, disconnect the furling drum with sail attached drop it in the hatch and lower it on the halyard. Launching is reverse. If you don't have a hatch for this then it is more problematic because it then goes in a bag and needs to be put away somewhere. Consider too, if it is a swiveling pole keep it up with strong shock cord so that it can fold down if bob stays get caught on mooring line/bridle in wind against current situations. All the time it sits out there in the elements when it does not need to, is having the stitching eaten away by UV, birds mess on it, even furled it is constantly working with flexing of the mast, mold grows inside.

[Tupaia]

I commissioned my screecher without UV protection that makes it much lighter and less bulky. It is also more efficient in light airs which is what it is for after all. Like Tin Tin it is only ever up when being used otherwise it is dropped into an apron locker dedicated for the purpose. I also chose to have a singe furling line on a drum that is easier to thread and unthread than a continuous loop furling line. It also has only one sheet.

And yes having the furled screecher up severely affects windward performance.

[LAGO]

Thanks Tin Tin, you're right and it probably will fit in a deck locker. I also have a problem with the 2:1 halyard getting twisted over the last 1-2 metres of hoist.

[LAGO]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

And yes having the furled screecher up severely affects windward performance.

Thanks Tupaia. Many people seem to leave the screecher hoisted. Maybe they don't care about upwind performance or it's just convenience.

[Tin Tin]

Originally Posted by LAGO

Thanks Tin Tin, you're right and it probably will fit in a deck locker. I also have a problem with the 2:1 halyard getting twisted over the last 1-2 metres of hoist.

A screecher may not need a 2:1 halyard like a code zero with extremely tight luff - depends on design. We had what the French called a gennaker and we would often ease the 1:1 halyard when going deeper downwind that lets the sail bag out bit more. Also a lot less halyard to deal with



Insofar as the halyard twist I an uncertain how to over come that in your situation depending what swivels or doesn't. Maybe a swivel on the mast attachment point?



I do recall a sail-maker saying once that you should always furl the same way.

[fxykty]

Our screecher is a big, heavy Dacron beast that is the only original sail on this 21 year old boat. We hoist it straight out of the sail locker but generally drop it onto the trampolines so that it can come down faster. Then we feed it into the sail locker - it needs to be folded 6 times to fit.

We leave it up when we’re expecting the next day to have reaching or downwind conditions or if we’re expecting to use it within the next 2 or 3 days - basically laziness. If there is going to be any upwind or stronger wind or were not planning to move for a few days or more then we take it down. It does have UV strips on leach and foot but they’re so old I bet they’re not doing much if anything anymore.

The halyard is 2:1 (definitely required on our size of boat (16m cat with 120m^2 sail)). We had a bit of problem with halyard twisting, though mousing and pulling the halyard all the way out every 6 months and detwisting it keeps it pretty fair. Also, keep at least one wrap on the winch when dropping and that helps to remove the winch twist from hoisting.

We are about to install Wichard swivels (https://marine.wichard.com/en/stainl...allen-head-pin) at the fixed end of all our 2:1 halyards: main, gennaker, staysail. We installed swivels on our 2:1 and 3:1 dinghy lift lines to test the concept and they work a treat to keep twists out of the line. So now the halyards get the same treatment.

[LAGO]

Thanks fxykty for the halyard and swivel tips. I'll have to have a close look to see what rigging we have.

[Leadfree]

My SCREACHER (correct spelling, btw) is taken down. Preserves sail and rigging and also to retract sprit to prevent anchor chafe on the stays

To reduce halyard twist, the halyard is flaked on the cockpit floor.

An old beachcat/trimaran trick is when preparing to douse, cast the halyard aft and let it drag behind the boat for a bit so the twist can undo itself

[catsketcher]

A few thoughts

I have an old reacher that I use - it has no UV strip so I always take it down. The boat near mine leaves theirs up all the time - my boat is 38ft so the screecher/Code 0 is smaller than on a Lightwave 45. Easier to put up and down.

I am very conscious of the need to keep weight out of the ends of the boat - our boat sails nicely to windward. One reason is the daggerboards but also my desire to keep as much weight as possible out of the ends of the boat. The weight of a screecher up high and a long way from the centre of gyration will impact heavily on the hobbyhorsing nature of a cat to windward - if the sail weighs about 40 kg and has its CG about 8 metres up then this has a rotational momentum (in torque untis) of 3200Nm. You could get the same torque from a small adult sitting on on the bow of the Lightwave - try it and see how she handles chop with a person on the bow.

AS to the halyard - ensure you don't coil the halyard (like I taught people for about 40 years - I used to make nice loops and place these over a winch). Flake the halyard with a butterfly flake. It stops lots of problems with dropping sails - I take the halyard off the mast - open it up and drop it on deck - works much better than the old days when I coiled the halyard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8X90k5U6vQ

cheers

Phil

[LAGO]

Originally Posted by catsketcher

- if the sail weighs about 40 kg and has its CG about 8 metres up then this has a rotational momentum (in torque untis) of 3200Nm. You could get the same torque from a small adult sitting on on the bow of the Lightwave - try it and see how she handles chop with a person on the bow.

Thanks, that's a great way to analyse the effect. 3200nm of force certainly wears out the connecting shackles.

[SailingHarmonie]

The only reason to leave a sail like that up is laziness or ignorance. It is bad for the sail, the furling gear, the rig, and sailing performance.

"Lots of boats do it" because they either don't understand the damage that can result, or they are lazy.

Let's think about it this way. If you were sailing with the furled sail hoisted, and you saw a large, dark thunderstorm approaching, would you take it down and stow it safely? or leave it up, and hope it would be ok?

On our boat, if something is not being used, it is put away. Period. Full stop. Because from long experience we know that not doing so will come back to bite us. Maybe not today, but eventually.

Many times if something it too hard to do in a timely manner the best answer is to figure out a better way to do it. If you are having trouble with the halyard twisting, you have not yet be taught to coil it correctly. the method proposed by catsketcher above is one way, figure 8 coils are another, and alternate hitch coils are a third. All result in twist free coils. Regular round-n-round coils put a twist in the line equal to the number of coils in the hank. This rapidly becomes a nightmare for 2:1 halyards

[Letterkenny]

I have a code zero I leave up as I have a UV strip and also struggle with twists.

[LAGO]

Originally Posted by Letterkenny

I have a code zero I leave up as I have a UV strip and also struggle with twists.

Me too! Brand new halyard and connections. Twisting at the top the first time we tried to move the halyard. Don't worry about incorrect coiling, it was new rope installed by the rigger, sail hoisted once.

[DragonflyBob]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

The only reason to leave a sail like that up is laziness or ignorance. It is bad for the sail, the furling gear, the rig, and sailing performance.

"Lots of boats do it" because they either don't understand the damage that can result, or they are lazy.

Let's think about it this way. If you were sailing with the furled sail hoisted, and you saw a large, dark thunderstorm approaching, would you take it down and stow it safely? or leave it up, and hope it would be ok?

On our boat, if something is not being used, it is put away. Period. Full stop. Because from long experience we know that not doing so will come back to bite us. Maybe not today, but eventually.

Many times if something it too hard to do in a timely manner the best answer is to figure out a better way to do it. If you are having trouble with the halyard twisting, you have not yet be taught to coil it correctly. the method proposed by catsketcher above is one way, figure 8 coils are another, and alternate hitch coils are a third. All result in twist free coils. Regular round-n-round coils put a twist in the line equal to the number of coils in the hank. This rapidly becomes a nightmare for 2:1 halyards

YES! It’s not good seamanship to leave a furled screacher, Code Zero, or gennaker up if not in use for all of the reasons listed here and above. The Code Zero on our Dragonfly 32 is 67 m2 and the sail weighs about 70 lbs. When we lower it, my sailing partner controls the halyard and I flake the furled sail into its sail bag that is set up on the trampoline. If we are in open water, we put the boat on autopilot sailing at about 155 TWD for the furling and lowering of the sail. It takes 3-4 minutes total to have the sail down and in the bag and probably a couple more to tidy and secure the sheets and halyard.