Gennaker furler on a C27

[Joel H.]

I have a gennaker that came with my 1978 C27. I have yet to fly it. I'd like to be able to, but I sail mostly singlehand. I'm intrigued by the idea of a furler system for it and I'm wondering if anyone with a C27 has rigged one, or can give me a breakdown on rigging for one.
Joel H.

 

[jrowan]

I think you will find that buying a furler just for the use of a gennaker going down wind is costly. But there are cheaper ways to rig a gennaker or spinaker for quick launch.
The most common method is to have a sailbag rigged at the foot of the sail. This can have the head of the sail already attached to the jib halyard. So when the sail is raised on the halyard, it will fill out quickly. It can also be doused & shoved down the forward hatch when not in use quickly to avoid entanglement. But even with a gennaker bag & retrieval system, I would not even try to run a spinnaker single handed. It really requires an extra crew member dedicated to raising & setting the sail & controlling the angle of attack while running. It takes a lot of attention for the helmsman just to keep your boat from accidentally jibing, let alone fly a gennaker or spinaker with the attention that it requires. The only way that it would be possible to work it single handed would be to have all of your lines run aft to the cockpit. This is where I would spend your money in an extra length dedicated spinaker halyard, blocks to lead the halyard aft from the mast step, gennaker control sheets, & after guy if it uses one. I don't believe that a gennaker requires a spin. pole which simplifies its rigging, as no topping lift is needed or pole rigging. Good luck with your rigging.

 

[Joe]

Ooooh! Now youre talking..Very, very cool......... go for it....You'll be the envy of every single hander in your marina. As you can figure from my reaction, I want one desperately... here's a good article about them from Sail Magazine
I single hand 90 percent of the time and this is the answer to my dreams..... rigged with a short sprit it would be phenomenal.....

I've been shopping around and found a Karver product that is appropriate for our C27 and reasonably priced also. A "torque line" would need to be added for my exising gennaker.... and instead of purchasing a new 135 upwind sail for my attached luff furler, I could leave the 110 on it, and look for a code zero type reaching sail that could share the continuous line furler with the asymetrical........... ahh... I'm dreaming... can you just picture the possibilities it opens up for single handers.

So......I can't wait to see how you get on with your conversion...then we can trade tips on setup and operation when I get mine.

Regarding Jrowan's comment.......Watch this video
and tell me you don't want one. To heck with the sock.... this is the future.