Furling options for an Oday 222

[RobG]

Some thoughts after my first season with Averyanne...The head sail rig is original. The boat has a 7/8ths fractional set up. A Schafer small boat furler with a wire luff is hauled up with a halyard a few inches behind the head stay. The sail is about a 110% as it's clew ends up at the shrouds (swept back spreaders) while close hauled. The sail was one season old when I bought the boat.At first I thought this set up would be neat to be able to tweek the mast bend with the back stay and still be able to adjust the jib luff with the halyard. After my first season on eastern Long Island Sound I've realized we have plenty of wind and reefing the head sail had been necessary on several occasions. The small boat furler just won't cut it as is, so some questions...Could I play with a foam luff with the small boat furler?I've been considering a Schafer Snap Furl but how would I use it? On a wire/rope halyard where the original is? On the forestay which may change the balance (good now) of the rig. The sail would also be somewhat short on it.If I used the Snap Furl could I replace the wire in the luff with a proper sized rope to emulate #5 luff tape?Thanks in advance all...

 

[Bill Colombo]

Jib Furler

Rob,The Schaefer Snap Furl would be a nice upgrade for your furling system. Most wire luff systems don't work as well when used for roller reefing. The new Schaefer unit would be much better since it rolls the sail around the extrusion. It installs right over your existing wire headstay. It is not a problem to convert the wire luff to #5 luff tape. When you have this done have your sailmaker install soft head and tack webbing instead of rings. This allows the sail to furl better. With the Snap Furl you could use a luff pad to keep the sail flat when you reef it.Thanks,Bill C.Doyle Sails

 

[Bob]

What he said

I concur completely with Bill. On a former boat I had the small Schaefer furler you describe. It worked fine for that application, but was not intended for reefing and was not a system you could tweek very much. Luff sag in any kind of wind was considerable. I have a SnapFurl on my Ericson 23 now and have been very happy with it. Its only two drawbacks so far have been: 1. the #5 tape slot - I wish it would take #6, as that is a much more common size and the Kiwi Slides I'm going to use to convert another sail to work with this foil are 6s so I'll have to cut them down; 2. because the foil/tube/extrusion is plastic, it takes somewhat of a twisted "set" after the sail has been furled a number of times, resulting in the luff of the sail not always presenting the same angle to the wind, especially in light air. Other than those minor gripes, it's a good system at a great price, especially when you can catch it on sale. In '03 I bought mine in a package deal with new sails, and the loft matched the best sale price I could find. Moving your furler to the forestay won't hurt your balance, and will soon have you wanting a little more sail up there anyway, I think.

 

[RobG]

Thanks Bill and Bob

I was leaning in that direction.