self tending jib

[chrvy]

I own a C&C 27 and for geriatric reasons am thinking about setting up a self tending jib. What I am thinking of doing is to getting about 10 feet of one and one half inch dowelling, fastening one end to the bow cleat and the other to the clew of the furling jib. Furl in the jib till the foot is tight fastening a sheet thru a snatch block at the base of the mast and tacking all day without cranking winches. Anyone ever try something like this?Any comments? I can imagine I will get some choice comments on this one.----Gary

[Jeff_H]

Few genoas are cut so that they would have close to the proper shape in that partially rolled up configuration. Jibs that have been cut for self-tending applications tend to be shaped like the leading edge of a genoa rather than the trailing edge of the sail that your would be flying. They tend to use the entire length of the luff and have short battens which help mantain proper leech shape on such a high aspect ratio sail. The sheet lead for a self-tending jib is highlt critical so that proper leech tension can be maintained. Since you are sailing with such a small sail, efficiency of the sail trim and sail shape become much more important. In other words I seriously doubt that your proposal would work very well.

Frankly your best bet would be to get a non-overlapping jib made (or buy one used) that would be suitable for a self tacking application. On the other hand, small non-overlapping jibs are so easy to tack that you might not even bother with the self-tacking gear.

That said, closet pole is cheap and so it won''t cost you much to find out for yourself.


Jeff