Hello, In your rigs and rigging section, you mention using the Profurl 4000 free flying furler. Can that furler be set tight enough to work for use up wind sail?
Don Street, in his valuable book The Ocean Sailing Yacht, mentions his using a similar unit some years ago for both jib and staysail and using them upwind, downwind, whatever. High luff tension is vital, of course. I don’t see why these couldn’t be used for all headsails, providing the safety of being able to get the sail down and also being able to easily change sails. Leaving the headstay would provide the backup system for a hanked-on sail. The century-old Wykeham-Martin design still works well for gaff riggers. Can the new flying furlers fill the role for Bermudan rigs?
Thanks, Donal
Hi Donal: There is no easy answer to your question. This depends on how strong a wind you want to use the free-flying furler in to weather, how much headsail sag you can tolerate, and the structural capability of the mast and sprit or stem to which things are attached.
The problem is not the furling gear per se – you can always get that strong enough. It is everything else in the equation. Race boats do use these sails upwind in light airs. We could carry Beowulf’s free-flying reacher (cut flatter than the code 0 we had aboard) in up to six or seven knots apparent – after which it was better to set our regular jib. This was using two-to-one spectra halyards. We looked at a higher wind range, but did not want to subject the mast and bowsprit to the higher loads which would go with trying to keep the luff straight. – Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
