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Roller Furling Gear


Tim Diebert

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Some of you may recall my mentioning my favorite book, 'Sailing Just For Fun", by AC (Charles Stock). There is a picture of his boat at the bottom of this page...

http://www.timtone.com/tt/ttphotos/PhotosSailingTopsail.htm

He has used the same furling gear on his boat for 40 years. It is solid brass, British made and has been available for over 100 years. Charles highly recomends it in his book. It is pricey, but something I am going to get one day. I thought you might all mind find it interesting.

More info here....

http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/asp/prodtype.asp?prodtype=79&ph=cat

294.jpg

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From time to time the Wykeham-Martin Gear Size 2 RG-0161 have been listed on ebay as well. The #2 system is perfect for boats the size of the Weekender, Vacationer and Pocket Cruiser. Yes, they are pricey, 171.92 pounds sterling, ($303.00 US) at today's current rates of exchange, but they will out last these boats.

I've used their #2 furling gear and their #4 on a much larger boat. They are great once they are set up. Forestay tension is critical with them. The only real issue is the potential for the halyard/forestay and block to twist with the furling drum. Once that is adjusted correctly, it is a fine system and a lot simpler, more reliable and much less expensive than systems using a tube to replace and carry the load of the system. The downside is that it has to remain inplace while you are on the water as it replaces the forestay.

Both Ronstad and Harken have small boat furling gear as well. The smallest system is marginal on anything larger than a standard Weekender Jib. The smallest systems from these two are really designed for small dingys. But the mid sized gear is well suited. Typically about $190 - $230 from some of the discount online retailers.

None of these are reefing systems and shouldn't even be considered as such. They are strictly furling systems. And they work well when properly installed.

Capt. Jake has a home built system on his fine Weekender, Fire Escape. He uses a Lapper as his standard jib with the standard length bowsprit. In the area he is sailing most of the time, the Lapper works well with light to medium air. It also tends to balance the helm well. At about the same time you would need to reef the main, you would probably furl the Lapper.

I'm using basically the same system on my Weekender, SpiritWind however I have an elongated bowsprit that allows me to use either the larger Lapper, a #2 Genoa, or the standard jib on the forestay. It also allows me to use a forestaysail or stormsail instead of the others or in addition to them with a second halyard and a second attachment point about 21 inches behind the forestay. That second smaller staysail is using a clubfoot and is completely self tending. It is simplicity in all its forms. The primary difference between these home made systems and the commercial systems is that these use the standard forestay and the furling gear is mounted just behind it. The halyard tension is sufficient to handle these and allow the furling gear to work smoothly.

Both of our systems use the swivels from either Ronstad or Harken. They are very smooth operating ball bearing swivels from their furling gear. Unfortunately the swivels are expensive. The best one for this use sells for about $60 ea. and you should have two of them. There have been a few listed on ebay and they typically sell for near the retail price.

I've located some commercial fishing ball bearing line swivels that may work, however, they are rather crude compared to the nice finished swivels from the commercial systems. But they are also only about $8 to $10 each.

The commercial systems are designed to replace the forestay and operate under tension to replace the forestay.

Both the commercial gear and the homemade gear that we have built ourselves require a stiff wire sewn into the luff of the sail for the sail to roll up upon as the furling spool turns. Nither of our systems replace the forestay, they operate at a lower tension with the forestay still carrying the load of the rest of the system.

Having a furling system for the headsail is a real plus with these boats, especially the Weekender. Virtually eliminates the need to go forward while sailing or getting into or out of launch areas. And when it starts to blow, you will really appreciate the ability to furl the foresail from the cockpit simply by pulling on a single furling line. No sail dragging off the deck or flapping in the breeze as you try to get it out of the way.

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Great info Barry. I had no idea of the two versions...bearing and non.

I love the idea of having the ability to have lots of sail available when wanted...and then being able to dowse it easily. The foresail that is. For the inner staysail I would want two options. One about the size of the stock jib and another stormsail for those special occasions. Kind of like you I guess.

The cutter rig will come later for me I think. I am going to do just the topsail first...without the higher up forestay attachment point. I really like the way John B. did his...I have saved the drawing he sent. It is the least expensive way to go for now.

I already have a lapper sized headsail and loved the performance and balance there. Problem with just the lapper or choosing to start the day with this sail on the stock rig, is when you need to change to a smaller sail. Very interesting to do on a WE. I always beach to change headsails....not great. The furling for the foresail would be a wonderful improvement.

I have been playing with the idea of some kind of light weight reaching sail. I sailed on a buddies boat this summer, a 26' MacGregor Legend. He had this sail...I forget what it was called...a light weight reaching sail that had to be jibed around each time. It was symetrical and an odd cut. A head and two clews kind of. On a port tack...for example...the port clew would be clipped at the bow and the sbrd sheet run for control. The head would obviously remain the same during all this. Anyway...I am a bit fuzzy on the whole thing. Point is that on a day when there was not enough breeze to keep any kind of stock sail full, we were easily able to keep the blooperish thing full and the boat moving. It was a fair amount of work....but that is the sailing game.

My lake is interesting in that it tends to run the full gamut any old time it wants. The very best days are the 10-15k all day longers...but I only had three of those all last season. The rest were very light, total skunks (2) or 20 knot plus days of which I was fortunate to get 3 of.

Anyway, thanks for the new and interesting info. Eventually I am going to have to do something.

Like Mike, I too drool over those brass units. Someday I recon.

Hey. I got one for you Barry. Are you familiar with the Canuck side of your water? I have had this crazy notion of making the crossing to the Gulf Islands and eventually around to Victoria one day....in my WE. That would be the Lower Mainland and over from there...I forget how far it is at the moment...but I seem to recall I had calculated it would take pretty well all day at 4 knots. (I can't find my old charts to check)

I have not been able to find anything on the net about small boat crossings of the Georgia Straight.

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Well, they run bathtubs across there to Nanimo. I think you would be a lot better off than in one of those things. :lol: I gone to Victoria several times with small sailboats, thru the San Juans. Great cruising. Coming down from a Vancouver area launch would be a day long trip I'm sure.

The beauty of having a fixed forestay is that the furling system is set into place with the jib halyard. Changing to a different sail is quick and easy as long as the other sail has a luff wire sewn in. They just coil up and slip into a carry bag for storage when not in use. Roll up the lapper, drop the head with the halyard. Unclip the head and clip on the head of the smaller sail. Unclip the furling drum and clip it on the smaller one. Unclip the jib sheets and clip them onto the smaller jib and raise it into place with the halyard. Then just unfurl it and away you go. Coil up the Lapper and stow it in the cabin. Getting out there to get to the furling drum is why I built the bow pulpit for mine. But I can also just raise the standard jib or a storm sail with a luff wire on a second halyard. Clip on the clubfoot and it is self tending.

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Wow...that Harken stuff looks good. Thanks for the link.

Well, they run bathtubs across there to Nanimo. I think you would be a lot better off than in one of those things. I gone to Victoria several times with small sailboats, thru the San Juans. Great cruising. Coming down from a Vancouver area launch would be a day long trip I'm sure.

>It looks like it is about twenty miles or so...at least where I would like to cross. I think my boat might be a slight improvement over a bathtub boat..LOL. Maybe a tad more comfortable anyway.

The beauty of having a fixed forestay is that the furling system is set into place with the jib halyard. Changing to a different sail is quick and easy as long as the other sail has a luff wire sewn in.

>Can a luff wire be sewn into an existing sail?

They just coil up and slip into a carry bag for storage when not in use. Roll up the lapper, drop the head with the halyard. Unclip the head and clip on the head of the smaller sail. Unclip the furling drum and clip it on the smaller one. Unclip the jib sheets and clip them onto the smaller jib and raise it into place with the halyard. Then just unfurl it and away you go. Coil up the Lapper and stow it in the cabin.

>Very appealing. That would be the ticket for sure.

Getting out there to get to the furling drum is why I built the bow pulpit for mine. But I can also just raise the standard jib or a storm sail with a luff wire on a second halyard. Clip on the clubfoot and it is self tending.

>Ah, have you ever gotten that far out on a WE Barry? hehehehe. I have done it few times without the ability a pulpit would allow, and it getting real interesting real fast. The stern comes right out of the water and you are balancing on the 'nose' of the boat. I did it once when a friend was watching from another boat and he said it was a comical sight...i HAD INTENDED TO PUT A KIND OF PULPIT FOR MY KNEES TO GO..ooopps caps sorry....but after seeing how unstable it was I left it alone. Now that I am ballasted it might be fine...or if you had someone in the stern to counter your weight...? I usually sail alone.

Either way, the furling system would be the cats ass for sure.

...Oh, I called this fellow yesterday. A Philip Teece, in Victoria. I had read an article in the 'Small Craft Advisor' that he wrote. Great story. He has a little bilge keeled 18 foot plywood Caprice. Made in the '70's.

Has sailed all over the straight....way up north and down as far south as San Francisco. Sailing these wtaers for 50 years. Written two books as well. He was great to talk to. Lots of info and a real character as well.

He said that dinghy's crossed the straight all the time. <embarrassing> A person just has to pick their day.

The two main things are no matter if there is a strong wind, the sea conditions are the tricky part. Philip said he had been in storm conditions on the briny blue that were not as bad as it can get in the Straights. Even on a nice 10k day, the sea can be a right proper bugger. 6 foot breaking waves...could be a serious hazard to a wee boat. The other thing he mentioned is it was very possible to have zero breeze as well and so to have a strong motor in that case...if you don't want to spend the night out there.

He also mentioned a flow that he knew in the area. Found a 14 foot runabout dead on a beach somewhere. Also found a wrecked 8' glass tender...combined the two to make a boat. The dingy being the cabin....Philip said this guy actually lives on his boat....kind of a homeless person, but was living and traveling on his boat. He rigged a half assed mast and sail...mostly only able to sail downhill. He has covered the entire inside passage MANY TIMES. So I have no excuses eh?

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The Harken 435 is a good furling system for a small boat. It is well made and will handle a lot bigger sails than we would be using with it. Obviously they design these with a considerable margin of safety in them as far as rating them. The swivels could handle the full weight of the boat and its contents so they shouldn't ever have a binding problem with the loads of any sail we would be using with them.

I would probably still have a fixed forestay with any of the single drum/swivel types of small boat furling systems. After seeing a lot of them in use and talking with the owners of the boats, the consensus seemed to be that using it to replace the forestay works, but is very limiting as far as the true potential of having the flexability to change sails if necessary or desired.

Can a luff wire be sewn into an existing sail?

Yes, It really isn't a problem. Capt. Jake used his Lapper hanked onto the regular forestay for his initial launch and then had a sailmaker in the Olympia area sew in a luff wire for him. Most all of the people that use them, that I had talked with, had the luff wires sewn in after they had used them for some time. But had replacement sails made up with the luff wire. It isn't difficult to sew them in with a home machine or even hand stitching. One of the things I plan on doing is to make up another lighter air Lapper from a lighter weight polytarp and sew the luff wire into it as well as do some shaping of the sail with darts. The sails I have now are from heavier polytarp material and are made to be hanked on. So I will be sewing luff wires into both the headsails I have now.

With the luff wire sewn in and then set into a thimble on both ends, it simply clips into the swivel and the furling drum.

Ah, have you ever gotten that far out on a WE Barry? hehehehe.

NO! :shock: I may not be all that smart, but I'm not stupid either. :? The primary reason for putting the furling gear on the Weekender (in my mind)is to help to eliminate the potential need for me to do just that when I'm single handing or out with inexperienced guests. And that I expect will most likely be most of the time I go sailing.

I went out on a Weekender in what most mainlanders would consider to be very questionable conditions off Maui. That was my first introduction to the Weekender. I was with two Hawaiian boys that had built it and sailed it reguarly in the waters out of Lahina. I watched as these two moved all over the boat including stretched out on the bow to reach a tangled fitting and straighten it out. I should also mention that they were (in my mind) the ideal types of bodies to take along. Combined weight of these two former University of Hawaii linemen, was probably close to 750# and they were both over 6' 3" tall. Consider that with the three of us we probably weighed more than the boat. I understood fully that I wouldn't even consider trying to sail alone in the conditions we were out in with waves breaking around us and the tops blowing off the waves. I never felt even the least bit uncomfortable on that trip. We sailed around a bit of a point and the water was perfect for sailing with about 10-15 knot winds steady and mostly protected waters. We had the rail buried most of the time and often had waves breaking against the hull. It convinced me that the Weekender was a very safe boat to be in. It also handled everything very well. They had tarp sails, (second set), the first set had lasted about two years of heavy use. Standard jib, standard main. They didn't use the clubfoot on this trip as we had plenty of help to man the boat. But when either of them went out alone or with some of the kids that they often took out, they did use the clubfoot instead.

We also returned to the launch working against a pretty good current and a lot of chop. Not a problem at all. Although it was slow progress.

I've also been out among the San Juan Islands in small boats when things have turned sour quickly and had to deal with the tidal flows, rips and eddies as well as quick changes in wind direction and lots of very confusing chop. Many times it is a lot safer and less hassle to simply pull into a protected area and simply wait it out. But for the most part, getting across the channel and to Victoria on nice day is just a lot of fun and nice sailing. Just consider, you also have to get back. :roll:

But I don't know if I would consider doing it in a boat smaller than the Weekender, and I certainly wouldn't ever consider doing it alone. :wink:

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Barry: Great first time exposure to the WE. Great story. I can see why you decided to build one. I have been very pleased with my boat in the heavier conditions I have been in. When I am by myself, I am very happy to have my Linebacker along in the form of lead. Even when there are two people on the boat in gusty conditions it is nice to have the extra weight down low. I am able to carry more sail for much longer that way. Your friends sound like they had a good bit of experience with that boat. You were more fortunate than most to get a test drive before committing to the design.

"Just consider, you also have to get back.

But I don't know if I would consider doing it in a boat smaller than the Weekender, and I certainly wouldn't ever consider doing it alone"

Right, I had considered that. But...I always have the option of parking the boat over there and going back on the ferry to get the car and trailer...if the conditions were such that I could not get back. :lol:

As for going alone or not. I have always found it hard to find someone whos shedule coincides with mine. So I would almost certainly be doing such a trip alone.

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