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Old 25-03-2007, 13:09   #16
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While not by choice mine was not removed in Isabelle with 90 Plus winds. It was in an extra wide / long slip though.
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Old 25-03-2007, 13:34   #17
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I have friends that had their furling line break at a bad time. Making sure the furling line is in good shape is a good pm task. My furler has a hole in the drum to put a pin or a hook to lock it independent of the line.

Another reason to get the sail off of the furler if you are expecting a big storm is weight aloft. Dashews' claim that leaving the sail on the furler is equivalent to taking 600 lbs of lead out of the keel on a typical 40 footer, when you want weight down low the most. By my rough calculations for my boat I believe that is a bit on the high side, I get more on the order of 300 lbs, that's still 5% of the ballast on my boat.


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Old 25-03-2007, 15:02   #18
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We had some wind here a couple of weeks ago, not that much - about 25 kts from what is usually the leeward side. The boat in the next slip had a rolled up jib and it came loose - they had it rololed rather loosely, and the sheets were rather loose too. Being a good neighbor (er, mostly just going batty from all the noise) I took a line over there, ran it up with the main halyard and then wrapped it around the furler in the opposite direction from the way the jib was furled, like a spiral. This brought in the flailing jib litle by little and kept it secure for the rest of the storm. Never heard of anybody doing this before, but it might be an option if its too late to take it down but want to keep it from coming loose.
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Old 29-03-2007, 23:02   #19
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I am pretty sure that you can only use a foil on a furler. On our boat we have both options - use the furler for cruising and use our race sails with the foil. They go on easy enough and use the existing groove for the furled sail.

I think peoples comments about reefing ealier with a furler are true, but the one disadvantage is sail shape. This is not such an issue if you get a good sail maker to make you a nice No 2 but usually the problem is that people have overloaded cruising type yachts that require the extra grunt of the Genoa. Trying to furl that and maintain a good shape - impossible! Our yacht is well ballanced and is easily driven without the need for large sail areas, therefore a furler works well for us. Our inner forestay can easily be installed for a storm sail, which is hanked on. We also pack a Code 0 on a permanant prodder for really light conditions and can still make 5 knots in 10 knots of breeze. It would have to be near to the perfect set up for short handed sailing, having a sail that can be easily deployed for any condition.

The dissadvantage for hanked on sails is storage room for 4 or 5 head sails. That's is valuable room for cruising storage!
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Old 30-03-2007, 02:24   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cal40john
... My furler has a hole in the drum to put a pin or a hook to lock it independent of the line ...
John
To which I'd add:
The safety locking pin should be tethered to the forestay, so it's always ready for imediate insertion.
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Old 12-07-2015, 11:53   #21
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Re: Furler in a Gale

This post just came up 7/12/2015. I see the original was in 2007. But thought
I would relay my experience with 95 MPH winds during hurricane Katrina. I got phone calls from 4 clients that had evacuated a day prior to the the storm hitting. So by the time I got to the marina it was blowing 35 and I was by myself. Soooo the only thing I could think to do was wrap the Spinnaker halyard the opposite way from the furling of the sail. And I'll be damned if it didn't work !!!! We had straight line winds of 90-95 MPH and the sails did not come unfurled. In fact boats next to the ones I did, unfurled and beat to ****. But not the wrapped ones with the halyard. And because it was blowing so hard when I went to check the boats it was impossible to unfurl and tighten the sails on the furler.
Bottom line is if you are concerned about a gale approaching and can't get the headsail down. Wrap it as tight as the furling line will let you and wrap the halyard the opposite way. It Works !!!
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Old 12-07-2015, 12:26   #22
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Re: Furler in a Gale

As long as we are updating a very old thread I will add my experience.

40' boat with Cutter rig an a Profurl roller furler on the bow. We had a 135% genoa for the first six years and a 120% genoa for the next 14-years. We've been thru the following with the genoa wrapped (furled) on the forestay:

- three 55+ knot events underway (including up to 12' breaking seas) where we had either a small staysail rigged or no headsail at all
- a 65 knot storm at anchor
- many 50-knot storms at anchor
- many dozen full gales while underway
- three or more 55+ knot events at the dock

We have never once seen any indication the genoa was going to come unfurled or exposed to the wind. When a storm is imminent we do the following to prepare the roller furler to keep it securing wrapped on the forestay:

- when furling the sail we hold the two sheets such that they wrap tightly around the furled sail in an alternate pattern. That means the bottom 1/2 of the sail is fully wrapped in 1/2" sheets. We lead one sheet to a midships cleat and the other sheet to a bow cleat.

- when furling before an anticipated storm - we put a lot of tension on both sheets while furling and use the furling winch to pull the furling line. This results in a very tightly wrapped genoa.

- tie a 1/8" high strength line to the clew and wrap it tightly around the furled sail three times and then tie it, again to the clew. This procedure can be dicey because it is necessary to stand on top of the pulpit rails and reach overhead to do the tying and wrapping.

- We tie a 1/8" high strength line to the starboard upper pulpit rail then wrap that line around the furler drum four times, opposite the way the drum unfurls, then tie the line to the port pulpit rail. This is done so the line is under great tension.

The rig will come down before the sail unfurls!

I have been at sea in another 42' cutter in over 50 knots one time and 40-knots another with the genoa furled and tied as described above with no problems.

During the 65-knot at anchor event two other boats in the same anchorage secured their RF genoas the same way as I with no problem. The incoming waves were breaking 6' up onto the RF sail with no effect.

A 4th boat did not take similar precautions in the 65-knot storm and their 135% genoa came partially unfurled and was destroyed.

However, in three cases of a predicted hurricane impact while at anchor, I have removed the genoa (as well as the main and the dodger) and stowed it below. That seems to kill the storm because, in one case the hurricane very unexpectedly died before hitting with less than 40 knots, and in the other two cases it veered away and we saw less than 45-knots.

The ONE time I did not take down the genoa, because the hurricane was forecast to go ashore 125 miles SE and we would not even see 25-knots, the storm changed course and parked 20-miles east of us for 12-hours.
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Old 12-07-2015, 21:11   #23
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Re: Furler in a Gale

You have to be sure that you have enough turns on the drum to keep the sail furled in high wind conditions. A sail that is furled/reefed in 30k winds will wind much tighter than one done at 15k so will take more turns on the furler to haul the sail in. Too many boats set the furling to roll the sail up in very low wind conditions in the slip and run out of turns when they really need to get the sail in in high winds.

Furled sail will have more wind resistance that a bare stay. If the sail is fully furled you'll be able to live with it in the overwhelming majority of conditions. In any case, you don't want to have to lower a sail in high winds. If you think you are going to be in survival conditions, get the sail down well before SHTF. Furled sails come free of the furler extrusion except the tack clew as the sail comes down. In very high winds, think the only way to survive lowering a sail would be to let it go overboard.
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