dealing with roller furling jib failures?

[mitiempo]

I think furlers have shown that they are a durable and handy addition to a boat most of the time. Phillipe Jeantot did a lot to popularize them when his Credit Agricole used Profurl on the BOC Challenge. But he had several with different size sails on each - and that's what I don't like about them. For most people cruising near home they're great, but you don't get that many "gears" with them as you can only reef a certain amount (30% or so) and still have a properly shaped sail. Of course one solution is a removable solent stay set just inside and parallel to the furling stay but most don't need this for the type of sailing they do. I would do this if furling was on my boat when I purchased it. But iistead it came with 3 different size jibs, one with reef points. That's the way it will stay as I think rather than spend 2k or so for a good furler plus sail modification or a new sail I will add to the jib arsenal with a storm jib and possibly a lighter sail. Singlehanding is not impossible without a furler and dousing a jib from the cockpit is easy with a properly led downhaul and my halyards led aft (they already are).
Brian

[pdqaltair]

Originally Posted by jbarros

Hi,

I was talking with a friend about the usefulness of a roller furling headsail for singlehanding. The ease of "dropping" it, the potential to "reef" it, etc, and I was told a story about a pin breaking off inside the furler, and someone being stuck with their jib up. They managed to get it down and were fine, but it got me wondering, how often does this happen? Is it preventable with routine maintenance, seasonal rebuilds or something like that? I noticed that the boats I've been on with roller furling headsails, I've not noticed a jib halyard, and I'm a little curious about how one deals with or avoids something like this?

Thanks.

-- James

Most failures are halyard wraps, bearing failures, or bearing failures causing other problems. Halyard wraps are easy to avoid - it is just a mater of correct set-up. A halyard restrainer helps too. I had a bearing failure myself. I should have felt it coming, but I thought the rebuilding would be difficult. It wasn't at all. The story of the bearing failure is on my blog:Sail Delmarva: Search results for furler.

Not a big deal, if done as soon as the furler will not spin by hand or you feel a catch.

Unless the furler fails half rolled in, you simply have a foil, just as many racers do. No big deal, particularly if you have a smaller jib.

[mitiempo]

Here's a picture of a boat with both in-mast and jib furling reefed a bit. Notice the set of the sails.
Brian

[jbarros]

Thanks for all the great replies.

Regarding the set of the sails, that is unfortunate. If there's one thing that I think everyone on this board will agree on, it's the pride of coming in, knowing your sails are set perfectly and your little boat, even if only for another 20 minutes, is bristol fashion, and you really are best sailor you can be. Issues of pride aside, I can't see that sail shape being good for the sails in any of the conditions I'd bother to reef in. It looks like the leech would get beaten to a pulp rather sooner than I or my pocketbook would like. Then again, I've never had reefable jibs, and despite having a huge inventory of sails for such a small boat, if the conditions got too hairy for whatever sail I'd hanked on earlier, I'd generally just drop the jib and run under main alone, which seemed to work fine for me. Once again, I've never been a real racer type.

The last boat I owned I single handed often enough, and I was hanked on. It was definitely doable, but it meant spending time outside the harbor dropping my jib and sailing in slower so that I wouldn't be going forward inside a busy harbor to drop it. Then again, it was also a small boat, and I didn't have a downhaul, and even with one, I think you'd still need to run up to wrap up the sail and stop it from blowing all over the place, no?

Thanks again.

-- James

[Gary M]

The drum on the furlers will only only hold so much line. It is a trade off, the smaller the line size the more it holds but then your hands will not like it much.

The boat I was on last summer that this happened to was using a Harken furler and the drum was full of fairly small line.

We went from 12 knots to 35 knots of wind rather quickly but we could clearly see it coming. The skipper asked us to furl the head sail which was a brand new D4 kevlar on a 35 foot boat. Very expensive. It furled up so tight that we had almost half the sail still out and were out of furling line.
We were fine but I was not too happy about the sail so I insisted that we roll it back out and drop it. Something that we should have done before it hit.

That was in one of the Mac races. I told him I would be happy to do it again next year but we are getting rid of the furler.

There are a number of newer boats that are designed to only use a 100% jib with a furler. They have a larger main and this set up makes more sense to me.

[mintcakekeith]

40 years ago it was fun to be up to my neck in green water, now I have a furler.K

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by mitiempo

Here's a picture of a boat with both in-mast and jib furling reefed a bit. Notice the set of the sails.
Brian

True, in that photo, the leech of the jib does not look so hot. But we can also see that they failed to adjust the sheet lead when they furled in the genoa. It's still where it was for the full genny, much too far aft for the reduced sail.

They should ordinarily move those leads forward as the clew shifts forward. But that sail is also reefed beyond the usual limits of most furling headsails (usually 20-30%), anyway.

As for the roller furling main... well, I can't help you there.

[bubb2]

I run a Furlex rolling furling on my head sail. My boat is a 7/8 factional rig and the jib 110%. The thing that I see far to often is the guys trying to reef 140 or 150 head sail. It will never have a good shape. With a 110% head sail I can reef to 50% of head sail and still have a useful sail for heavier winds.

Many furling failures I have seen over the years are nothing more that running to large of head sail and blaming a furler that was never designed for a head sail as large as the sailor wants it to carry.

[mitiempo]

I guess it comes down to how many compromises you are willing to make. If you choose a large (140 -150%) jib you can't reef it below 110 or so, and probably not very effectively. If you choose a 110 jib you lose in light air. There is always the engine. I've seen many boats with a furled jib and the main up powering when the right sails wouldn't require an engine. Fine for daysailing but if you're travelling a long distance you really can't or don't want to turn the engine on much. Except for battery charging but with good solar etc it hopefully won't be necessary.
As far as lowering a jib, rig a light line through a small block at the tack of the jib with a fair lead to it. Run the line up through the jib hanks to the halyard attachment. When you want to lower it sheet in the jib and pull on the downhaul after releasing the halyard. The jib should fall inside the lifelines and won't flog much if kept sheeted in. Here's a link to a full explanation from Practical Sailor. http://www.practical-sailor.com/marine/jibdownhaul.pdf
Brian

[mdidriksen]

I like that downhaul idea -- will have to give it a try in the spring.

My boat came with hanked on head sails, and for now a furler is not in the budget. I have not found it a problem single handing it (34' masthead sloop). If you keep the headsail sheeted in when you blow the halyard, it comes down on the deck in decent fashion. I do then run forward and put a sail tie around it to keep it in place until I get on my mooring.

I've had several bad experiences with furlers jamming that necessitated cutting the furling line out of the drum while in gale conditions in the north atlantic. It was not fun. My understanding is that some of these kinks have been worked out since then (1980s), but I'm still suspicious.

Anyone have experience with continuous line furlers?