Unlike a traditional mainsail that is hoisted and doused vertically with a halyard, an in-mast furling mainsail wraps around a tube inside a hollow mast. It is unfurled by an outhaul line and furled back in with a line labelled as the "inhaul. It's important to know how to properly handle an in-mast furling mainsail in order to prevent problems later on.
Your goal is for the crew to work together to unfurl the sail in a controlled manner. The trick is to maintain slight tension on the inhaul line as the sail comes out. A common cause of a jammed furling mainsail is that the sail was wrapped too loosely around the tube inside the mast last time it was furled.
To unjam it, your goal is to tighten the sail's wrap. Try the following steps:. Never force a stuck sail by grinding hard on a winch. Excessive force could damage the sail or other components.
If you still cannot get the sail unfurled after a few attempts, head back to base and call the office. A technician will meet you at the dock to troubleshoot the problem. Reefing a furling mainsail is simple! Follow the steps below to furl the sail in part-way to shorten the sail.
Some mainsails have marks on the foot of the sail to indicate suggested reef points, but you can customize your sail area to make it any size you like. Your goal is to wrap the mainsail tightly around the tube inside the mast. The trick is to tighten up the boom vang and maintain tension on the outhaul as the sail is being furled in.
In this case, you might want to raise the drum of the furling unit off the deck a little to offer more clearance. Most brands offer custom fittings to do just this by means of a chainplate extender or stainless steel strap.
Either way, if you plan to install the system yourself you will need an accurate measurement of your headstay length. Depending on the unit, you then apply a series of deductions to compensate for the extra toggles, etc.
Additional deductions will then be necessary to work out the required length of the luff foil, which usually has to be cut to size. Only Facnor avoids this stress by using a telescopic bottom foil.
No matter what system you choose, you may have to get your jib or genoa recut to compensate for the shorter luff length provided by the foil. Some sailmakers recommend a foam patch sewn just inside the luff to make the sail flatter and avoid wrinkles when reefed.
This will allow the tack swivel to help flatten the sail as you reef. By contrast, at the head of the sail things are more straightforward. Just make sure the jib halyard pulls slightly away from the forestay. Note how the halyard cleats off on this CDI furler.
They also have a single luff groove in their foil extrusions, as opposed to two, making it harder to rig a double headsail for long downwind passages or effect seamless headsail changes when racing. In both cases, the advantages include the fact that less of the luff length is given over to the furler, thereby maximizing sail area.
Using webbing in a furler drum also offers the advantage of minimizing the chance of overrides when unrolling the sail. CDI furlers are unique in that each has its own built-in halyard and uses a PVC luff extrusion with three channels—one for the forestay, one for the halyard and a groove for the jib itself, which makes halyard wrap an impossibility. A proprietary sheave fitting at the top of the foil also eliminates the need for an expensive swivel.
The halyard is made off to a cleat on the furler when the sail is hoisted. The sail is attached to the rod using soft hanks or a zip-up luff bag. The beauty of the system is that it allows you to save weight up high in the rigging and facilitates a more efficient sail shape with less drag.
With the belowdeck version, you can also use the full luff length of the sail. In the case of our hypothetical 38ft sloop, for example, which is right at the bottom end of the size range suitable for installing an electric furler, there are products available from Facnor, Profurl, Furlex, Reckmann and Harken that could all work. Of course, as with an electric windlass, there is the added complication of having to find a way to provide to the unit.
For those who decide to go with a volt electric furler, it is common practice to hook the furler up to other power sources at the bow, such as an electric windlass or bow-thruster. All electric furlers also have a manual backup in case of power failure. The Harken system, for instance, has a manual drive slot that will accept a specially adapted bit in a cordless drill.
Many of them also work with a winch handle. This Schaefer furler left has been configured with a long toggle link to raise it farther off the foredeck. The overall dimensions of an electric furler right are comparable to a manual one. CDI sailcdi. Facnor facnor. Harken Inc. If you remove the split drum for racing, you then attach your headsail tack to the orginal stem-head fitting location, attach the halyard to the head of the sail and hoist using the luff groove in the extrusion.
The upper swivel remains out of the way at the bottom of the extrusion after the sail feeder is removed. On some systems you may have to disassemble the sail feeder to let the upper swivel by and then reattach it again.
One furling manufacturer uses its own halyard system on some of its units so that you have no use for the existing halyards on your mast. So, if you are a racer and require two luff grooves for fast headsail changes, make sure you buy a system that uses your two halyards required for a non-bald-headed sail change.
While, as before mentioned, systems with aluminum extrusions tend to be more sophisticated and expensive, there are differences. Bearing construction and materials vary, as do methods of extrusion attachment.
Some manufactures like Furlex include all the components needed for a near complete installation no cleat , while others offer some equipment like the cleat, blocks to lead the line aft and the halyard retainer as optional kits. Some systems use your existing forestay turnbuckle, while others discard them and incorporate their own adjustable feature as standard or optional equipment.
Some don't use adjusters at all. With some flexible furlers ball-bearing features are optional. So, when pricing out a furling system, consider your need, consider your budget, consider all the parts needed more on this below , and compare the quality differences. Lastly, as a matter of the entire expense to make the system whole, consider sail modification or replacement, as well as freight and installation should you elect to not put it together yourself.
By all means, read the manual before beginning your project. The old "measure twice and cut once" concept is particularly important here. While most manuals are well written and very detailed - designed to make this a fail-safe project, measure 3 times before cutting to be sure or you might be back to the store to order a new forestay or another extrusion piece. Before you buy any jib furling system, obtain your pin-to-pin forestay measurement before you either remove or unstep your mast.
When your mast is up and tuned, take this measurement. This will save you a lot of time and aggravation. First you need to know your forestay length and diameter to order the right system regardless of manufacturer, and if you do your own installation, exact measurements take the guess work and anxiety out of the required calculations. Consider forestay attachment ends.
Before ordering know the forestay clevis pin diameter on your boat to avoid either sloppiness with a pin too small or having to drill out a stem head fitting hole that is too small. Both are not recommended. Furling manufactures should provide the pin size required for your boat. Either a mechanical terminal end such as a Norseman or StayLok fitting is attached, or you must visit your local chandlery for swaging on a threaded stud. Important: The latter is done after you have made the required measurement calculations as required in the owner's manual.
In the case of some Harken units, you swage on the stud after you have threaded on the required amount of extrusion links provided with the system and as specified in the manual. Some manufacturers include what you need at the bottom and some manufacturers offer you a choice as an option. There are two other installation considerations at the bottom end before purchasing.
If your boat has a recess forward so that the drum fits below decks, you must assure that the system's drum is compatible with the space and in some above deck situations, the stem-head fitting is so close to the bow pulpit that the drum might bind against the rail in normal installations. In this case, a space might be needed to raise the drum to clear the rail. This will affect the all-important forestay measurement. Some mast manufactures employ different forestay attachment methods, other than the typical clevis pin, designed to fit into their masthead design.
You also might need a toggle if specified in the manual or special adaptor link or piece of hardware. Whatever you need usually these are all available as an option from your furling dealer. Be sure to consider all these additions when you figure your forestay calculations.
Next, consider a halyard retainer. In most installations, a halyard retainer is required to keep the halyard from wrapping around the forestay if the lead from the masthead is not at the proper angle. Some manufactures offer this as standard, some as an option and a few incorporate this feature into their upper swivel.
Halyard wrapping is the biggest complaint from new furler owners and the retainer is a simple and permanent fix to the problem. After all, you can reef it to a smaller size if the wind pipes up. Cutter-rigged boats will inventory two different sizes to complete her fore-triangle configuration.
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