Hi friends,

( scroll down to next post for photos )

Well the jury is in. This furler system works GREAT. I am very pleased with it. Took Shanti out for some beer can racing Wednesday night and everything worked great! Nothing like a little competition against some Farr 40′s to shake the cobwebs out.

A quick note regarding the races. They take place here in Charlotte Amalie Harbor on St. Thomas. it’s sponsored in part by OnDeck Racing. They have a fleet of Farr 40′s they take tourists match racing on for a couple of hours. So on Wednesday evenings if you are a local you can hop on board one for the beer cans. I did a couple of weeks ago and they are amazing sailing boats. The Porsche’s of sailing. We of course couldn’t touch them, but damn we looked good! Hey the beer was COLD!

Took on a couple of young bucks as crew. Told one to crank that jib halyard up tight, and boy did he. The halyard was so tight the head stay went slack and it was set at 1200# tension via a loos Gage. Will have to tighten down the backstay some more.  So the winch/2 part halyard worked as intended.

During the racing we were tacking between 85-90. So the performance has not suffered from using a flying jib. I thought it would not as long as things were set up correctly.

Furling was easy. I first I thought is was a little hard, but I guess things are just settling in ( including me ). Hauling the sail inboard with the bowsprite traveler works great and it is really simple and quick to drop the sail if need be. When I had the sail modified with the Dyneema torque rope luff line the sailmaker had taken off the telltales. So right before the race I wanted to put some more on. I just dropped the sail, then hauled in the traveler. Stuck the telltales on and set it again. Pulled on the furling line and BADABOOM it was done.

Pros:

Easy and reliable furling. With the single line furler there are no overrides ever. The angel of approach for the furling line is not critical. Depending on how things end up lining up when I haul the traveler out to the end of the sprit, mine doesn’t always line up perfectly. This has not been a problem. No problems with upper swivel breaking and jamming. Leaving the boat with a sail stuck out and up with a huge squall bearing down on you. This system still allows you to easily drop the sail.

Easy to use different head sails. I think it is much simpler than changing headsails than a standard furler in use today. Even easier than hanked on sails. I will even run an asymmetrical with it ( when I can afford one ). Dropping a furled sail allows you to easily fold up the sail and pop it in a sail bag. I prefer different size sails for different wind conditions, instead of a huge sail and reefing. Even with a foam luff on standard furlers sail shape still sucks. I’m so impressed with the way this system furls I believe that using a foam luff you could reef one of these flying jibs if you wanted. But that would have to be put to the test. This system does away with all the convoluted approaches to setting a light air sail with standard furlers. So you can have a very nice sail in light airs.

Less weight aloft for better performance. No foil draped over the headstay.

Ease of installation. You just need to rig a 2 part halyard and run your furling line back to the cockpit. Also have to have your sailmaker modify your sails with the Dyneema torque rope in the luff. Only people with long bowsprits like Shanti’s need to worry about a traveler and hauling the tack of the sail in and out. Although this worked easy also.

Cost is about the same as a standard furler unless you already have a powerful jib winch. Then the cost would be a little less.

Cons:

The only downside I can see to this system for cruisers is the need of additional storage space for a number of different sails and the additional cost of those sails. But your boat will sail better with sails matched to the prevailing conditions.

Conclusion:

If you want your boat to sail at her optimum and maybe do some club racing or just want to enjoy a nice light air day, this is an excellent system to consider. Even though todays furlers are miles ahead of the ones of yesterday shit still happens. I believe this system is safer and more reliable.

I would like to thank Erik Precourt for is co-operation and valuble insight into making this rig work.

Cheers,

Gary

Next…the standing rigging!!

Hi all,

Took Shanti for a little shake down sail yesterday afternoon.

Observations:

Had to use the furling line to unfurl the sail. I could not unfurl it with the sheet. This is quit secure, but a bit more work as I have to control sheet and furling line at the same time.

 Even with the 1200# of tension on the setup, it furled in easy enough. But for some reason would only furl to the clew. Had to ease the halyard off a little to get some sheet wrapped around the furled sail.

 I will need to change the outhaul line for the traveler. There is more pressure transfered to it than I had hoped. It stretches to much. So the whole rig ends up sitting back a little more than I want.

 The new Lewmar bronze winch is gorgeous and works a treat! With friction in the setup, it is hard to get the full 1200# I planned on. I am seeing a little more sag than I would like, but only a little. Maybe if I eat my spinach I can get 1200#. The true test will be today as I race this afternoon. Then I will see how she how close to the wind she sails. didn’t do much tacking to weather yesterday to see.

Now for what you all have been waiting for…more pics!

under sail, sail unfurled

The setup

Control lines for traveler

Furling line belayed back by the cockpit

Cool little fairleads from Classic Marine, UK. Bronze and lignum vitae.

Detail of traveler and furler

Furled sail, nice and tidey. No dead bodies rolled up in it.

Detail

Closer detail of Precourt furler. Very small, but rated at 3000# SWL and up to a 450sqft sail.

Just the traveler is eased here, not the halyard.

Ready to drop on deck and stow or change

Shanti with her new hairdo ...shes such a girl!

Yes, I know I need to do something for anchor/mooring lines. I don’t have an extra hole at the lower part of the cranse iron for a block to run them through.  An it’s very difficult to free drill stainless steel.  hmmm, working on that one.

That’s all for now…maybe a will get some more racing tonight, but I may have my hands full with a green crew. Will report back on the weatherly performance.

Cheers,  Gary

Hi everyone,

A bit of an update on my furling system for those interested.

I have finally received all the bits and pieces I need to finish off my new furling system ( I think! ). 

1) Sail has been modified with Dyneema torque rope w/ an extra layer of heavy Dacron on the luff.  The extra layer was recommended by Erik Precourt. Erik also spliced up the torque rope for me. Although it is not hard to do ( I will have instructions sometime in the future ).

2) Code zero type furler From Precourt rigging. This is a small unit rated at 3000lb SWF and about the size of the palm of your hand, for the lower unit. The unit is rated for up to 450sqft of sail.

My furler is all black. Bottom part is carbon fiber. I used a length of 5/16 3 strand for the furling line.

 3) Low stretch high tech halyard XLS EXTRA T made by Samson http://www.samsonrope.com/index.cfm?rope=225 . Purchased from Defender marine as they had the best price, even better than Port Supply (West Marines wholesale division). Bought 115 feet for a 2 part halyard.

4) Some nice lignum vitae/bronze fairleads ( From Classic Marine in UK ) for the control line to the bowsprit traveler. And a couple of Herreshoff cleats for belaying the traveler control line and the furling line.

5) Small blocks for leading furling line aft to cockpit.

6) All bronze #16 Lewmar ST winch. With this winch and the 2 part halyard I should be able to get about 1200lbs on the jib luff for good performance to weather.

Some concerns I have:

1) The furler will not work well under the 1200lbs of load. May have to back of the halyard a touch to furl. We’ll see.

2) At 1200lbs the load may distort the bowsprit traveler. We’ll see.

3) What the evolution will be like to hoist the jib or headsail. Do I have to be off the wind, or can I do it into the wind. We’ll see.

Sunday a couple of friends of mine will help me set everything up. Most is done now, but the headstay has to be moved at the mast head to accommodate the 2 part halyard. Hopefully we will be sailing by Sunday afternoon.

I’ll let you know and have some pics…stay tuned!

Gary

Mini UPDATE:

Well I didn’t get a chance to take Shanti out sailing on Sunday. But I did get up the mast with the use of an ATN Topclimber. Monday I finished everything up and hoisted/furled the jib. so here are some observations.

ATN Topclimber. I moved my boat off it’s mooring and motored over to a little cove called Honeymoon Bay. I did this because where I am anchored is a bit rollie. But dinghy wakes gave me a problem anyway while in Honeymoon. It’s amazing how some people just don’t pay attention! I only had one individual slow down when he saw me up the mast. Everybody else was full tilt boogie as the passed and waked Shanti. The problem I found with the ATN was you need both hands to use it. So you don’t have anything to steady yourself against the wakes/rigging. So I found out the hard way that you need a really flat sea condition and no wakes to work aloft with an ATN Topclimber. I have bruises from being slammed into the rigging by wakes. It’s also a slow climb, but fairly easy. Coming down is harder than going up.

Furler. It’s works fine, but is not an “easy” pull to furl under the ~1200# tension. But it is sweet being so small. I need to sail and furl a few times in different conditions for a final analysis. It does furl nicely though. The “torque rope” for the luff worked very well and is the key to making the system work. Thanks Erik!

Jib traveler. I cranked up the halyard as tight as possible giving me a calculated 1200# tension on the luff of the sail. The ring did not distort! yaaaa!

I hoisted the sail while on the mooring, so I was dead into the wind ( about 8 kts ). I had to guide the sail a bit to keep the upper unit from banging the mast. It was easy though.

More to come. It looks good so far.

Gary