Roller Furl 'Safety' ?

[RTB]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

RTB,

You can clearly see the first reef here on the headsail marked, and the second one hiding behind the stysl........i2f

Thanks. Those are what I meant. Is the purpose of the foam in your luff to protect the sail where it wraps around the foil? Or is there another reason for it?

ps - if there is a different boat in my future, it will most likely have a cutter rig. I definitely see the advantages.

[cfarrar]

many of us... we just choose... for our own differing reasons...

Boatman, I agree with you 100%. The right sail configuration depends on the boat, the conditions, how far you're sailing, etc. There are many different solutions.

[cfarrar]

RTB,

The foam luff helps maintain the sail's shape as you furl it. If I remember correctly, without a foam luff the leech and foot become taught but the luff and center of the sail remain baggy.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by cfarrar

RTB,

The foam luff helps maintain the sail's shape as you furl it. If I remember correctly, without a foam luff the leech and foot become taught but the luff and center of the sail remain baggy.

But this can be minimised tweaking the jib sheet traveller.... it works ok on my hank-on Genny with slide replacements in the furler... just looks a little lumpy with some furled in...

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by RTB

Thanks. Those are what I meant. Is the purpose of the foam in your luff to protect the sail where it wraps around the foil? Or is there another reason for it?

ps - if there is a different boat in my future, it will most likely have a cutter rig. I definitely see the advantages.

G'Day Ralph,

You likely could convert Fugue to have a staysail. Wouldn't be a true cutter, but would have the advantage of being able to fly a smaller foresail in heavy stuff.

We did this in Insatiable One. Requires fabricating some sort of attachment hardware for attaching the stay to the mast and a reinforced chainplate at the bottom. OUrs came out not being quite parallel to the forestay, so it looked a bit odd, but it worked very well indeed. Oh yeah... we also added some light running backstays to help keep the mast straight... made from some discarded wire halyards we found in the dumpster!

IMO, having such a staysail not only will improve your upwind performance in heavier airs, but definitely will extend the life of your genoa by not overstressing its lighter cloth whilst partly rolled up.

Cheers,

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Manly, Qld, Oz southbound

[RTB]

Thank you Jim. I'll take a look at that possibility. I had never considered that.

Ralph

[delmarrey]

Then there is always the Solent stay like what was done on the S/V Sarah. Jack shows the install in his web site below. No need for running back stays.

Solent Stay

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by boatman61

But this can be minimised tweaking the jib sheet traveller.... it works ok on my hank-on Genny with slide replacements in the furler... just looks a little lumpy with some furled in...

As cfarrar mentioned, the foam luff keeps the partially-furled sail from getting too baggy. The jibsheet block should be repositioned when the sail is roller-reefed in order to obtain the correct sheeting angle for the new sail dimensions. This will optimize the leech and foot tension. It *won't* do much for a baggy headsail though.

I will admit that when flying my foam-luffed roller-reefed genoa I will often not bother with jibsheet block re-positioning. It depends on the conditions, and how lazy I am feeling.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

Then there is always the Solent stay like what was done on the S/V Sarah. Jack shows the install in his web site below. No need for running back stays.

Solent Stay

Yes, the Solent stay removes the need for a new mast fitting for the inner stay, and it is what we have on Insatiable II. The BIG drawback for this (at least for us) is that the slot between inner and outer stays is so narrow that one MUST roll up the gennie in order to tack or gybe it. A real PITA, and I hate it! Makes short tacking up a channel or such a real drag.

Otherwise, it works ok.

Cheers,

Jim

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Yes, the Solent stay removes the need for a new mast fitting for the inner stay, and it is what we have on Insatiable II. The BIG drawback for this (at least for us) is that the slot between inner and outer stays is so narrow that one MUST roll up the gennie in order to tack or gybe it. A real PITA, and I hate it! Makes short tacking up a channel or such a real drag.

Otherwise, it works ok.

Cheers,

Jim

Understandable!
In my case the solent stay would be temporary, stored a few inches forward of the mast and then set midway to the furling only for a Beaufort scale of 7 or above (in a harness and jack line), or for a long hall in a light breeze using both foresails.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

Understandable!
In my case the solent stay would be temporary, stored a few inches forward of the mast and then set midway to the furling only for a Beaufort scale of 7 or above (in a harness and jack line), or for a long hall in a light breeze using both foresails.

Well, Del, what you describe is similar to what I-2 had when we bought her. Worked ok, but did require some fiddling about on the foredeck with a Hyfield lever and so on. Being the lazy sod that I am, I put a furler on that stay and now have the stays'l available at the pull of a sheet. I like that, but even though I kept the Hyfield lever for easy removal (for those light air, short-tacking days) of the furler+sail, I almost never do it. It's not hard to remove, but a bit of a struggle to get it back on, especially if there's much sea running.

Laziness has it's costs!

In your case with the stay midway between the forestay and the mast, tacking the genny would likely be feasible... ours is much farther forward.

As we all know, yachts are large groups of compromises, held loosely together with fibreglass, timber, stainless wire and good intentions...

Cheers,

Jim