Most sailboats these days have a roller furler made by one of a handful of manufacturers that include Facnor, Furlex, Harken, Schaefer Marine and Profurl. While features may vary, the basic hardware and how it functions are similar. A rigid foil, or extrusion, with one or two slots for a sail’s luff tape, covers the headstay. There’s a line drum with a shackle for the foot of the sail at its base; up top, there’s a swivel to which the head of the sail and halyard are attached. The extrusion comes in sections, and inside each joint there’s some sort of fastener that doubles as a bushing to ensure the tube spins freely around the stay.

To go sailing, the crew simply pulls on the leeward sheet to unroll the jib. As the sail comes out, the furler line is wound up on the drum. To reduce sail or put it away, the sheet is eased as the furler line is pulled. The whole process is easily done singlehanded, and better yet, the work takes place in the safety of the cockpit.

And that’s exactly how the old Furlex furler on our Sabre worked — for a few seasons, at least. Then one day, it didn’t. Late on a breezy afternoon as we returned to the mooring, I went to furl the sail, but the furler drum wouldn’t budge. Going forward, I discovered that the furling line had somehow jumped the drum and become knotted under the furler. Oh, some salty phrases came to mind as I worked feverishly to sort things out, the sail flogging me about the head all the while.

Like a trick learned by an evil child, the line jumping off the furling drum became more and more common. In equal measure, it became increasingly harder to get the sail to unfurl. Finally, whatever mechanism was used to lock the foil in the top of the furling drum failed, so the whole extrusion would occasionally pop free and turn independently of the drum. Forced to drop the jib to the deck on a few occasions when conditions turned unmanageable, I even came to yearn for the hank-on sails of yore. At least they went up, and more importantly, came down easily. Clearly a long-term solution was needed. Time to call Schaefer again.

Getting Started

The first order of business when choosing a new furler is to determine the diameter of your headstay, the diameter of the clevis pins used to attach the stay to the bow fitting and mast, and the length of the stay, from pin to pin.

The first was easy. I dug out my Sabre owner’s manual, looked up the rig specs and then used a caliper to confirm that over the years, no one had altered the thickness of the headstay from the original 9/32 inch. Next, I measured the pins in the toggles that attached the furler to the bow: They were ½ inch.

The first was easy. I dug out my Sabre owner’s manual, looked up the rig specs and then used a caliper to confirm that over the years, no one had altered the thickness of the headstay from the original 9/32 inch. Next, I measured the pins in the toggles that attached the furler to the bow: They were ½ inch.

Finding the length of the stay was more of a challenge, since I had no eager volunteer to take one end of a tape to the top of the mast. Instead, I noted the length specified in the Sabre manual, and Schaefer supplied me with a new headstay that was a bit longer than needed. It had a swaged-on eye and turnbuckle at one end and was unfinished on the other. One of the last steps in the assembly process would be to cut the new wire to length and install a Sta-Lok eye. More on that later.

Then I gathered the tools I’d need. I purchased a 100-foot surveyor’s measuring tape at a local box store. The rest, I already had: a couple of large crescent wrenches; needle-nose, locking and regular pliers; a rivet gun with an 1/8-iXnch nose; a cordless drill, bits and a tap kit for contingencies; a hacksaw with a new blade; a bottle of permanent red Loctite thread-locker; screwdrivers; rigging tape; a large plastic bucket for tools and parts; and an old towel on which to work and keep small parts from falling between the boards of the dock where I’d do the install.

For crew, I used food and drink to entice my two CW office mates, Jen Brett and Herb McCormick, to leave work on a summer day. Joining us was my daughter, Rebecca, a mast climber from the time she was a child. When I installed the furler on the Ericson years ago, I asked one helper to be the keeper of the manual, and it worked well. This time, the chore went to Rebecca. My instructions to her were simple: Keep the booklet in hand, and read and reread each step aloud as we went along.

Then, I watched the video. Schaefer’s Fred Cook put together a quite detailed how-to video that explains in terms simple enough for even an English major to understand how to go about the job. I watched it from beginning to end a couple of times before and after reading through the equally thorough instruction manual. By the time I was done, I knew what all the parts looked like, what they were called, and had a reasonably solid notion of how they fit together.

The Big Day

Furler Team Jackalope gathered at the boatyard at 0900. In the back of my pickup, I unpacked the parts box and removed the sections of furler extrusions from their cardboard tubes. As recommended in the video, we saved the tubes so that once on the dock, they could be folded in half and placed under the furler to make it easier to handle as we put it together.

With Jackalope tied to the dock, I grabbed a screwdriver and pliers and pried apart the Furlex’s line drum to reach the turnbuckle I assumed was inside. To my surprise, there wasn’t one, which meant the adjustable backstay did all the fore and aft tensioning of the fixed forestay. Who knew?

Before letting off the backstay, we secured the jib halyard to the bow cleat and tensioned it with a cabin-top winch. Then it was time for Rebecca to climb into the bosun’s chair with an assortment of tools for working aloft. I tied her onto the main halyard with a bowline, backing up the knot with the shackle for good measure. Then Herb and I hauled her to the top of the mast with the other cabin-top winch.

Up above, Rebecca used a couple of clove hitches to tie the spare jib halyard to the top of the furler. While I pulled the cotter pins to free the lower end of the furler from the bow, she did the same aloft. When we were ready, I passed the bottom of the furler to Herb, who walked it down the dock as I lowered the assembly with the halyard.

Rebecca was back on deck and ready with the installation manual in no time.

Before jumping in and riveting the extrusions together to build the new furler, Schaefer recommends dry-fitting them. Good advice. Right off the bat, I got things backward assembling the pieces of the furler drum and overlooked the fact that the first couple of foil tubes are different in size to accommodate the sail feeder — lessons learned without expensive consequence.

Once the furler drum assembly was complete, we continued working our way up the furler, step by step, as Rebecca read the manual aloud and Jen chronicled our progress with her camera. When the end cap was in place, we took the whole thing apart and began anew, this time playing with live ammo in the form of stainless-steel rivets.

The tube sections were slid down from the top of the stay. To connect them, a two-piece inner joint had to be fitted around the stay and slid into either tube. Then eight rivets had to be popped, four on each side of the foil. I quickly realized that while ours was adequate, a better rivet gun with longer arms for more leverage would have worked better. I also found it easier to put all the rivets in place first, securing them with rigging tape if necessary, and then hit them with the gun.

Section by section, we worked our way down the dock until we came to the last one, which, along with the stay, needed to be cut to the right length. Time to break out the measuring tape.

With the old and new furlers sitting side by side, I took a long screwdriver and ran it through the bottom eye of the old one, keeping it as perpendicular to the stay as possible. In that way, I could measure the distance from eye to eye accurately, the tape clearing the remaining hardware at the bottom of the furler.

The Schaefer manual includes a simple-to-use calculator table that accounts for the length taken up by the new furler’s bottom toggles (used to provide flexibility and prevent damage to the forestay) and the Sta-Lok fitting at the top. Fill in the numbers, and presto, you know where to cut the stay, and therefore the last piece of tubing.

Just to be sure, I marked the new stay where it would be cut, and where the eye of the Sta-Lok fitting would fall. Then I used the tape to remeasure the pin-to-pin lengths of both furlers, and then, for added insurance, lined them up directly side by side, pin to pin, to make sure everything looked right.

With the hacksaw, I cut through the marking tape on the wire, then took the last tube to a sturdy table and trimmed it too.

Back on the dock, I slid the last tube over the wire, added the top swivel and end cap, then installed the Sta-Lok eye, using the prescribed thread-locker to keep it from failing.

It was now about 1400 — so much for the estimated three-hour installation time. After a quick lunch break, we hauled Rebecca back up the mast. The spare halyard was tied back onto the new furler, then I pulled it aloft as Herb walked it down the dock.

Once the new furler was in place and the backstay re-tensioned, just a couple of tasks remained. To ensure the halyard meets the upper swivel at the right angle and doesn’t wrap around the foil — parallel to or slightly aft of the angle of the headstay — Schaefer recommends installing a halyard restrainer on the mast. It is essentially a bail that the halyard runs through as it leaves the masthead shiv. Rebecca went aloft armed with a hammer, center punch, drill, bit and tap. Holding the restrainer in place, she marked the bolt holes with a marker and then drilled and tapped them so she could screw the restrainer’s fasteners into place. On deck, I attached the furling line to the drum, and voila, it was Miller time.

All the prep work, reading the instructions multiple times, and watching and rewatching the video paid off. Everything went together properly, there were no ­unexpected parts left over and the new furler fit perfectly.

The real test, of course, came the first time we took Jackalope for a sail. With a gentle tug on the sheet, the entire sail unrolled. In a bit of breeze, I was able to furl the sail by hand, no winch needed. Ditto, when it was time to put the sail away and head for the barn. There are many ways to make sailing easier, safer and more enjoyable. Having a ­reliable furler, in my mind, ranks right up there at the top.

Mark Pillsbury is CW’s editor.

The post Replacing the Roller Furler appeared first on Cruising World.

Antal T‑Lock

The low-profile base can be installed just about anywhere on the deck. Gear such as strops, blocks or low-friction rings can easily be attached and switched out for different conditions or sail configurations. The toggle locks into the base, and cannot be removed under load.

Antal Barber Block

The cheek plate rotates for immediate line placement, and an adjustable screw can set it in a fully locked position.

Harken element blocks

The company designed the Element from the ground up to keep it within a price point for budget-conscious sailors. The result is a contemporary block that is extraordinarily durable, efficient — and wallet-friendly.

Ronstan Core Blocks

Ronstan Core blocks use a full-contact acetyl bearing on a polished stainless-steel race, which ensures low friction even under heavy loads.

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Ronstan Series 200 Furler

With the Series 200 and 280, Ronstan has extended its range of continuous-­line furlers for use on boats up to 82 feet. These furlers are ideal for handling asymmetric spinnakers, gennakers and code zeros.

Seldén Furlex Electric

The unit is available as a complete kit or as an upgrade kit for several existing Furlex models, and you can choose either an on-deck or through-deck installation.

Tides Marine sail track and slide

When installed, the mainsail will rise easily and drop the instant the halyard is released.

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The rage in the market today is the new breed of free-flying furling systems aimed at furling anything from a heavy jib to a running asymmetrical. Specifically, the focus is on replacing the conventional spinnaker sock for downwind cruising sails. More than a dozen manufacturers have designed a furler to address this market. Essentially, the idea is to provide a luff rope with a swivel at the top and a continuous line drum at the bottom to wind the sail around the rope.

Furling units can be divided into two types: bottom-up and top-down. Bottom-up systems work the same way your conventional headsail roller furling system works, except that instead of aluminum foils wrapped around a fixed stay, a torsional rope is used. The tack is fixed to the drum at the bottom. The rope runs up inside the luff of the sail. As the drum is turned, the tack winds around the cable and the sail furls from bottom to top. A continuous line drum is used so you don’t run out of line before the sail is furled because the sail will not necessarily come in at the same rate as with a conventional furling system. This is mostly due to the torsional rope. If the rope twists, the sail will require more effort to furl and may not furl smoothly. (A rope is critical to the operation of any free-flying furling system, and is usually the limiting factor.)

Bottom-up units work fine as long as the sail is not too wide at the top. Ideally, the sail should be genoa-like. The mid-girth (mid-leech to mid-luff) should not be much greater than 50 percent (no more than 60-65 percent). This is the case for off-wind sails that are built for close reaching angles. Often referred to as Code Zero (or Screacher for multihulls), these are basically big reaching genoas that tend to be flatter than other downwind sails. There should be little to no sail area forward of the straight-line luff. The downside to this type of sizing is that the sails act like genoas when eased out at broad angles. They are too flat and small to be stable, and they project out from behind the mainsail and around the bow. For this type of sail, ideal apparent wind angles are typically between 60 and 130 degrees.

As downwind sails get bigger and the mid-girth increases, it’s harder and harder to get the top of the sail to furl if you start from the bottom. For broader angles (90-155 degrees), downwind sails are bigger, wider, and they have more depth. They also have considerable area forward of the straight-line luff. That is what keeps the sail stable and powerful and allows you to ease the sail out to project area in front of the boat. This is where top-down furling comes into play. Since the sail needs to project and there is a lot of area in the front of the sail, the torsional rope is not attached directly to the sail. The head is attached directly to the swivel and rope at the head. The tack is secured to a free-rotating fitting on the drum. As the furling line is pulled, the tack lags behind and the head furls first. The sail furls from the top down, capturing the hard-to-furl top sections first.

No matter how well the furling system works, or how good the torsional rope is, there are still limits. Full-sized broad-reaching and running spinnakers have mid-girths of as much of 100 percent of the foot length and can be very deep. That can be problematic to furl. As a rough guideline, if the mid-girth is much over 88-90 percent of the foot length, all bets are off. It might furl, it might not. That’s when a spinnaker sock makes the most sense. They’re a good choice for full-sized asymmetrical spinnakers designed for broad reaching and running. They are also more cost effective, since a good top-down furling system with a proper torsional rope can easily cost as much as the sail.

The bottom line is this: for furling systems, smaller and flatter is better. Once you are full sized, think sock.

This cruising tip has been brought to you by Quantum Sails.

The post To Furl or Not to Furl appeared first on Cruising World.

1. Use webbing loops at the head and tack of a spinnaker for top-down furling. This allows for a proper tight furl with no metal rings or grommets cutting the sail, straps or furling cable.
— Bruce Cooper, Ullman Sails

2. Furled sails should be lowered and stowed in strong winds to prevent the sail from accidentally unwinding itself.
— Patrick Murray, North Sails

3. If it’s windy, be sure to depower the sail before you start furling. Steer deep enough to blanket the chute behind the mainsail, and ease the sheets as you furl.
— Judy Blumhorst, Hyde Sails

4. Self-steering equipment needs to be able to handle the size and power of the sails, the boat speed, and changes in apparent-wind speed and angle as the boat surfs (or doesn’t). Make sure the helmsman is experienced when sailing with a spinnaker or reacher, or choose a sail that your autopilot or windvane can handle.
— Joe Cooper, Hood Sails

5. Add 4- to 6-foot soft Spectra rope extensions to the clew, then tie the spinnaker sheets to them. When furling the sail, overfurl so the Spectra wraps around the sail and closes the last part of the spinnaker. The Spectra rope extensions become sail ties to keep the sail closed after the sheets are eased and the sail is lowered to the deck to store.
— Bruce Cooper, Ullman Sails

6. When flying a spinnaker, know what upper wind range is comfortable for the boat, crew and systems. After the boat is at hull speed, keeping more sail up only becomes a liability.
— Bruce Cooper, Ullman Sails

7. The faster your boat goes, the farther forward your apparent-wind angle becomes. For example, on a catamaran, even when the true-wind angle looks like a broad reach (the lower limit of a reacher-style sail), the actual apparent wind could have you sailing on a close reach, putting you back in the sweet spot for a code zero. Alternately, a heavy-displacement boat will have lower apparent-wind angles and may be a better candidate for a more traditional downwind spinnaker.
— Judy Blumhorst, Hyde Sails

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The sail is a critical part of determining how well the system works, as well as how well the boat sails. Unfortunately, standard, original-equipment sails are often an afterthought, with cost – not quality – being the primary driver. Stretchy, poorly-designed sails that bunch up and jam as you try to furl or unfurl can quickly negate the beauty of the system.

To furl well inside the limited space of the mast cavity, the sail’s shape must also be quite flat. Control of sail shape via mast bend is not possible. Without battens, there is no structure to resist compression and keep the leech from moving toward the luff under load. This causes the sail to get fuller, just when you want to see it get flatter.

Vertical battens can help, but they can also create problems. The cavity size and width of the mast opening are important factors in determining if battens will work: battens add thickness to the sail and can make the sail difficult to roll in and out of the cavity. The pockets are also built-in sources of chafe, and will require maintenance over time. Vertical battens can reduce leech curl and allow for a small increase in area, but they can’t address the compression loads that cause a sail get fuller under load.

The best way to make a good in-mast mainsail is by controlling stretch and finding a way to do that without conventional batten structure. This puts a premium on materials. Woven polyester (Dacron) comes in varying grades that are virtually impossible to tell apart by looking at them. Only the lowest stretch, most tightly woven materials will provide the required stretch resistance. Reducing stretch across the material’s thread line (bias) is the key. And yes, you guessed it—these are the most expensive woven materials available.

On the other hand, composites designed for cruising applications actually are perfect for in-mast mainsails. They have less stretch in all directions to preserve the sail’s shape under load, keeping it flat with a straight, clean exit. They also improve the functionality of the system because the sail tends to not stretch and bunch up as it’s furled. The sail will actually be easier to furl and unfurl—when you pull on the line to turn the mandrel, the sail won’t stretch and give, but will begin to roll immediately.

Composites are available in a variety of sandwich constructions with exterior skins of woven polyester (taffetas), a fiber network to bear the primary loads, and a film to provide strength in all directions. There are two basic types: tri-radials made from pre-made materials, and Quantum’s proprietary Fusion MC one-piece membranes.

Tri-radial mainsails take advantage of radiating panels of pre-made materials out of the three corners of the sail to better align the fabric thread line with sail loadings. The length or “warp” fiber of the material is oriented to align with the primary load path. Better alignment creates lower stretch improving the sail’s ability to hold its shape. There is a broad spectrum of material options in tri-radial construction. They range from woven materials made with their strength in the warp direction (as opposed to the fill direction of classic woven polyester), to composites with multiple layers of material and a variety of fiber options. Tri-radials provide a performance upgrade for those who are looking for more than a traditional woven polyester sail can provide.

Fusion MC cruising mainsails are engineered on a sail-by-sail basis as one-piece membranes with custom fiber mapping tailored to the sail’s design purpose and expected usage. They can utilize a variety of fiber types. They provide lower stretch and greater strength, improving both initial performance and long-term shape retention without sacrificing durability and reliability. They represent the ultimate combination of performance and durability.

This cruising tip has been brought to you by Quantum Sails.

The post The Lowdown on In-Mast Furlers appeared first on Cruising World.

Furled jibs

When a series of overnight thunder squalls ripped through our mooring field this past summer, in the morning it was hard to ignore the two boats with their jibs partially unfurled, the sails snapping in the still-steady breeze. If this situation is left unattended, it obviously puts lots of wear and tear on the leech and can damage the cloth.

When furling the jib, it’s important to keep tension on one of the sheets to ensure a tight wrap. It’s better to go a step farther and take a couple of extra winds with the furler so that the sheets wrap once or twice around the sail for good measure. Then, with the furling line cleated, pull the jib sheets tight so that neither lines nor sail can work loose.

It may look tidy, but pulling the jib sheets forward and leaving them coiled and tied to the bow pulpit can also allow the leech of the jib to work itself loose in a blow. The furler was meant to have tension on it.

If you know that strong winds are forecast or if you’re planning to leave the boat unattended for any length of time, take a couple of sail ties or pieces of line and use clove hitches to secure them around the sail. This will help keep the jib from unfurling.
To be extra safe, take a few more sail ties and bind them around the mainsail cover so if the wind comes up strong and somehow works the fasteners loose, the cover stays in place.

If storm- or hurricane-force winds are expected, it’s best to take the sails and canvas off completely and to consider reducing windage further by removing the boom and either lashing it to the deck or storing it below.

If you’re in a hurry and shorthanded, keep your mainsail flaked but remove the sail ties and rewrap them around just the sail, rather than around sail and boom. Then it’s easy to unpin the tack and clew and either roll up or brick the mainsail on deck.

Mark Pillsbury is CW‘s editor.

The post How to Furl a Sail to Prevent Damage appeared first on Cruising World.

selden-gx furler

If you’re a spinnaker flyer and are tired of traditional shrimping, er, I mean, takedowns, or not pleased with using a sock to douse your shoot, Seldén and Profurl have both introduced top-down furling to their lines of sail-control products. Seldén’s is called Seldén GX; Profurl’s is called Spinex.

Details of the two systems differ, but basically, top-down furling systems use bearing-filled swivels at either end of a high-strength cable around which the spinnaker is furled. The cable is hoisted to the masthead and tension is put on it using the halyard. Unfurled, an asymmetrical spinnaker is flown in the normal way. But when it’s time to douse it, the furling line turns the top swivel, essentially collapsing the chute as it rolls up.

If you’re headed to a boat show this fall or winter, you’ll no-doubt find demo models at the companies’ booths.

What else is new this year in Annapolis? Check out our U.S. Sailboat Show page here.

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