Roller Furling ?

[Sergy]

Roller furling
My roller furling has a Yankee type sail (high Cut) It has also been trimmed by past owner used to be Genoa but now that it is cut along the leech and luff I have what would look like a fractional rig sail but the roller furling foil (or aluminum goes to the top of forestay).
My question is when I am sailing with this sail fully deployed if one were to look up at the foil it has a noticeably bend where the top of the sail is pulling on aluminum foil which is around the 3/8” forestay I began thinking if the sail were to go right to the top of forestay then we would not have this force applied to forestay ¾ of the way up.
But then most roller furling are made to be reefed which should cause this same effect.
Is this normal or should I be concerned.

[Portobello]

Hi Sergy - what set up do you have to adjust the tension of the back stay? This can help.

[Cheechako]

How far down is it? For off shore having a 2-3 ft wire pendant at the bottom keeps the water off the sail and allows for better visibility under the sail... have you considered a pendant?

[Ex-Calif]

You need to check forestay tension, backstay tension and mast alignment.

You are running a fractional sail in a masthead furling foil. In theory this should be ok however the difference with a masthead rig genny that is running furled is that the sail is in the foil all the way to the masthead and the sail is furled around the foil at the upper end.

Your set up should work but if with the halyard "free" above the fractional sail you have potential problems with this setup in my opinion.

If the foil is bending it indicates the forestay is loose but also you have an unusual loading situation. One idea might be to add small rings to the halyard and thread them above the fractional rig and around the forestay/foil as a storm sail might be rigged over a furled genny. This would support the halyard above the sail and below the masthead.

I still suggest you get someone to look at backstay and forestay rig and tension as well as mast alignment.

[Sergy]

“Hi Sergy - what set up do you have to adjust the tension of the back stay? This can help.” 2 ¼ inch back stays through 2 turn buckles. Adj. so to have 2mm wire stretch on each over 2 meters

How far down is it? For off shore having a 2-3 ft wire pendant at the bottom keeps the water off the sail and allows for better visibility under the sail... have you considered a pendant
I have a 16 “ pendent on the bottom sail clears life lines easily.
I also have a Pendent at the top of sail about 6 feet

Your set up should work but if with the halyard "free" above the fractional sail you have potential problems with this setup in my opinion.
I have not experienced any problems yet but I doo keep this halyard tight

If the foil is bending it indicates the forestay is loose but also you have an unusual loading situation.
Yes this is the case. Are we saying that if the forestay is tensioned correctly and we were to go ¾ of the way up and just pull at this point that the forestay would not flex about 1” at this point because this is what seems to be happening.

One idea might be to add small rings to the halyard and thread them above the fractional rig and around the forestay/foil as a storm sail might be rigged over a furled genny. This would support the halyard above the sail and below the masthead.
This would help if I had problems with halyard but should not do any thing to stop the foil from bending at the place where the top of the sail stops
I have had problems with mast pumping so I had aligned the mast and tensioned the standing rigging per Seldin book on tuning rig 2MM stretch per 2 Meter of wire.
I have also noticed my cabin deck at the foot of the mast depress so this winter I plan on re building the footing in the keel area. It is possible that though wire properly tensioned under loads it might be flexing down giving thereby changing the tension on the forestay
Thanks everyone for your valued advice to a novice

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Sergy

If the foil is bending it indicates the forestay is loose but also you have an unusual loading situation.
Yes this is the case. Are we saying that if the forestay is tensioned correctly and we were to go ¾ of the way up and just pull at this point that the forestay would not flex about 1” at this point because this is what seems to be happening.

There is a tendency to adjust halyard tension if forestay sag is noticed. On a furling unit this transfers the mast loads to the rings on the furling drums where the sail attaches. We broke the rings on our furling drum this way. Actually I wasn't on board at the time but understand the halyard was winched on pretty tight.

When using the foil without the drums - i.e. on race boats the tack is attached to the bow fitting directly, bypassing the drum units - you can apply stronger than normal tension because you are not overstressing the furling unit - i.e. it is not even being used.

The halyard tension in general should only be used to adjust sail shape.

The first thing is to make sure the forestay is tension right. I am not smart enough to know if 1" sag is too much but that doesn't seem like a lot to me. In high winds we easily get that in the middle of our rig.