Wire Luff Sails (free standing furling)

ranes · #1 (**permalink**) 07-02-2008

Can any wire luff sail be used with a furling drum and a swivel at the top. I need a free standing furling head sail that I can tension without hanks. I was looking in Bacons and found several that may work. Does anyone have experience with this type of rig.

sailingdog · #2 (**permalink**) 07-03-2008

I use a wire-luff screacher with a Schaefer furling unit. Works quite well. Don't believe that every wire luff sail can be used with a furling drum though. Most have to be made for the furling setup IIRC. If you have a question about wire luff sails and using them with furling units, I'd recommend you talk with a sail loft.

chris_gee · #3 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008

I don't see why it couldn't provided you have attachments at the top and bottom. It is a bit harder to achieve tension on the wire for windward performance but with some purchase not impossible. The other difficulty is that the luff tension is effectively fixed by some binding. This would mean fine tuning required the equivalent of a cunningham but since presumably you are not racing it won't matter.
The original furlers were of this design.