Furling again :)

[capt jake]

Hey, I got to thinking; instead of turning the forestay into the furler, why not leave the forestay and place another set of eyes aft of the forestay to utilize?? Having the furler behind the stay will not interfer with the furling. This set you would still allow the use of the halyard to add to the versatility of the jib.

Thoughts??

Posted before, but I thought a fresh start may generate some response.

[Jan Williamson]

Hey Capt Jake did you see this site yet?

http://abone.superonline.com/~h.atinc/rollereng.htm#cad

[capt jake]

I did now. Thanks, slightly different configuration than I have set up. Smart design though.

[John B]

Thats what we do on our boat Jake. we set the jib on a wyham martin furler behind the forestay. When its light we hank a big jib/genoa on the forestay. If we are racing we'll start on the wind with the jib say, and then when we round a mark for a reach or a run we'll haul up the genoa and furl the jib and drop in on the deck.

have you put up a post on WBF about your launching? ( I've missed it if you have)

[capt jake]

have you put up a post on WBF about your launching? ( I've missed it if you have)

I did. Though I did more posting and description here (I like this place better).

[capt jake]

Well i replaced my forestay and placed teh jib slightly aft of the forestay. I am now able to use the jib halyard to tension the jib independant if the forestay.

the roller fuling is working swell, especially now that it is not taking to full tension of the forestay as well. It rolls up into a sausage about 3 inches in diameter. I velcro strap it in place, disconnect teh jib sheets and slide it into a home made cover (after lowering teh haylyard and disconnecting it.

I hope to get pics this PM.

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[capt jake]

Hmm? :? With all of the recent talk over the years about this; no further comments?

[Barry Pyeatt]

Nice purple line!

Should clash really well with the green trim on your boat. :roll:

OK, so lets see the working end of things as set up. Can't believe you have gotten this together so quickly. I have no doubts whatsoever that this will work for you. The proof will be in the ability to adjust tension and have the sheets clear so they don't jam up on you when tacking. But I'm sure you have that figured out too.

Looking forward to an on the water trial. May have to drive down to observe after I get back. Get Joel on the water again. He'll love it,

good heavens, take his bride along too. She goes, yours will follow just to see if it does float. :wink: Then he will feel the pressure. AAAAHHHHH!

[capt jake]

Purple wasn't the 1st choice, but at 15% of the cost of the other stuff! :shock:

I think I have the fouling of the lines problem taken care of; a few pretty pieces of Honduran in choice locations.

Tensioning? I ran an independant forestay, the furling system is on the jib halyard; no chance of overtensioning beyond that of the forestay. Lessoning the tension on the swivels made tehm come to life. really easy to furl!

Joel back out on the water? We are trying to make schedules meet. I woul love to go out on Saturday!???? Nasty forecast, but I don't care! Maybe I can rinse off some of the tension, you know, Fire Escape and all... ;) Joel???? Barry??

[Barry Pyeatt]

Sorry Jake,

I don't come back until late on the 1st. Still got to pay the bills you know.

It is expected to get in the 90's for the next few days. Would rather be on the water than inside. :cry: But I gots to do what I committed myself to do. Been a good trip all and all.

[capt jake]

I understand, bills an all, especially the 90 degrees, 60's here and raining.

That's OK, JOEL!!!! OH JOEL! ............ LOL

[capt jake]

i bought the swivels from Boaters World, thogh they can't get them any longer. Here is a link ot the company who makes them. Go to products and then furling gear, FG1

http://www.rwo-marine.com/

[Joel]

Well Jake, It looks like another perfect weekend in the PNW. Barry check out what your missing

http://www.weather.com/weather/detail/USWA0161?dayNum=1

joel

[Barry Pyeatt]

HUMMMMMMMMM! Just another great weekend in store for that part of Paradise.

May just decide to extend a bit here and come back to Seattle area in say....July or Aug. :roll:

Well, you could look at it this way....there will be some wind for you. All you have to do is dash between the squalls. Wouldn't worry much the about SPF Factors however for the Memorial Day Weekend. And as far as I know, we were all born drip dry.

OK, OK! Why do Weekenders in the Northwest all have cabins?

It gives the crew a place to hang up the rain gear while they are getting a hot latte.

[capt jake]

Or a place for your son to sleep while Joel and I sail in heavy winds!!!!

Had a blast today, I must admit, there was one time when it got a little bit exciting (though the whole trip was great fun). I have a scum line up to the lower rub rab, though the water did splach over more than once!

Hey Ray! NO need or ballast! We were in 40MPH winds and traveling at 19MPH! :shock: NO problems!!!!

Really I think we did hit some gusts of 15+ with a pretty constand 10-12. We traveled (as the crow flies) about 4 miles out and back. Tht one gust was a challenge as it last a good 5 plus minutes.

We got a chance to reef teh main and it worked very well during the nest blow!.

furling would have worked outstanding, had somebody not cut the control line (purple line) too durned short!! Don't know who that could have been! :shock: Even with a shortened line, when I crawled out there, Joel was impressed with how well and fast it furled (it needed to be fast on this one).

I have a secondary electrical system dedicated to 'tunes'!!!! It worked all day!!!

A great day all in all. We both learned a lot more! Reef early! ;)

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[capt jake]

The wind is so fickle here Ray, that the ballast (I feel) would be a hinderance in the ultra light winds we get most of the time. Blows like hech and then there you sit..

We were able to speed past other boats in wind that was barely noticable.

The higher winds we had today we due to several storms passing through. After they cleared, well the wind was barely there at times. When they were there, it was a blast.

There was definitely a learning curve and a bit of taking the training wheels off after a while!

Now I need to find that idiot who cut the furling line too short!

[capt jake]

but generally for some ridiculous reason I typically find myself close hauled when the wind is of that velocity. Really, though I am not sure why.

Funny thing is, we do too! Not sure why either, but it handles better! We were playing with the boom a bit, noticed that if you could pull down on the boom (as with a boom vang) it handled a lot better.

Probably by sailing 'close hauled' we are able to pull down on the boom a bit; at least that is what we found! Pointing in that 'certain' direction is also crucial.

BTW, we did find that the bow was a little heavy with that monster grp31 120 amp/hr battery; I added about 60-80 pounds of lead ingots in the lazerette and will see if that balances it out a bit (next time). :)

Don't get me wrong on this; it handled extremely well, though if we could drop the stern a wee bit, I think the performance would increase.

[Joel]

We certainly did have a good time. Fire Escape handled the weather well. I also thought the reefed sail was a good decision at about 15 knts. The helm was much lighter and tacking was much more controlled. In light air under full sail, we were able to pull away from quite a few boats. The furling set-up worked very well, in spite the problem with the short control line. Close hauled did seem to be our best point of sail. For some reason, it was a challenge making progress downwind. It may be we just need some practice trimming sails.

As a Weekender builder, this was a great learning opportunity. Jakes boat is really well thought out. I

[capt jake]

If you really do put some weight in the rear of the boat, you are in effect sailing wwith a fair amount of ballast.

Precicely! Though this ballast has double use, at least the ballast forward serves as a power supply.

I know you also have a battery or two, so are you double ballasted??

[Barry Pyeatt]

Doesn't really get to be fun till you're blowin the froth off the tops. From the photos, you were just getting a bit of fresh wind.

Glad to hear you two got out again and had some fun. Looks like the furling setup is a keeper. You might just have to cut that purple line off a little, longer though this time. :roll:

Nothing quite as exhilerating as running with the rail in the water and trimmed as tight as you can get it. Once you get used to it that is. :wink: You have plenty of ballast on board, just learning where to place the moveable variety when you need to is the challenge. You'll also find the boat will handle better with a bow down attitude. Especially as the wind freshens.

What do you expect from downwind performance? Your fastest, most efficient sailing will always be on a reach or pointing into the wind a bit. That is when the sail develops lift and actually pulls you. Think about that Venturi effect off of the jib and the lift it creates on the main when it is trimmed properly. Powerful stuff there Maynard! Sail shaping is the clue to performance downwind and in light air. When you are filling it from the back, it is just blowing you along. Hence the need for more area to capture the force of the wind. ie. bigger headsails for downwind.

I feel the need for speed!

You have a loose footed main and both sails have leech lines to allow you to shape them for the conditions of the moment. Allowing the main to bag up on downwind runs along with shaping the lapper to catch more air will improve the performance downwind. Also sailing just slightly off the wind will help as the sails bag out a bit more and capture the air better.

You felt the difference as you "power up" with close hauling, well you need to feel the difference as you allow things to power down and work more to your advantage when it gets windier and/or more gusts. Your learning curve will be quite steep as you get more of a feel for your boat and trust in how it behaves under various conditions and points of sail to the wind.

Gadzooks, wish I could have been along. Would have preferred the much cooler, overcast/wind as opposed to the 90 somethings we have here right now.