In mast furling - safety issues?

[Ed]

Ok, here goes - I had inmast furling on my 326 (loved it) So I got it on my 426, but I may be missing something. I often read here that it is "safer" to furl with this system as you don't need to leave the cockpit - that is not my experience. When you let out the main you need to have the furler off of ratchet - but to furl it back in it needs to be on ratchet (unless I am doing it wrong). So this requires a trip to the mast after first letting the sail out. Ok, if you are letting it out in light air then wanting to reef later, you can put the sail out, go forward set the ratchet, then use it later if required - of course if you then decide to let out more sail it is another trip forward to accomplish this (maybe two if you only want to let out a little!) If you want to start with half the sail out - not too sure how to do this. I assume you can keep enough tention on the drum as the sail is being pulled out then set the ratchet - but again a trip to the mast. Am I missing something here? Thanks for any input as I sail this boat with just my wife and I - so no extra hands around. Ed

 

[tim S]

Selden In Mast Furling

You do not need to have it on ratchet, but you will need to cleat off the furling control lines to keep the line tensioned in the drum jaws. The tension will keep the drum from free wheeling.

 

[Jay Meyer]

Agree

We do not set the furler to "ratchet mode" after setting our sails on our 380, we did the same on our 340. Normally we leave the furling line on the winch (set up for furling or reefing) and just engage the line clutch as a safety. Enjoy your new boat!Jay

 

[MIke D]

Absolutely Necessary

Ed,We do not engage the ratchet either. To prevent the sail from "freewheeling" out we keep tension on the furling line. This will prevent the main from unfurling more than desired.On the other side of the coin, you are absolutely correct. On days when we do not want to risk using the full main, we use the ratchet. I normally get everything set and stable first. I then go up on deck to set the ratchet.Hope this helps,Mike D

 

[Kenneth Pfaff]

The way my 290 is rigged...

I have a single line goes to the rachet on the mast, comes back to the cockpit, goes through 2 cam blocks, and then the two end are splice together to make a single line. So to unfurl the main to release one of the cam cleats, and pull on the other end of the line. To furl you release the other cam and pull the on the line. I hope that make sense.

 

[MIke D]

Hey Ken

I know for sure that your way of doing it works fine for you. I NEVER pull on the unfurling side of the continuous loop. The one time that I did have a sail hang-up in the furling system was just that. I am sure to use only the outhaul to unfurl the main. This means that you need to keep a little back tension on the furling line to prevent the sail from freewheeling in a stronger wind. Luckily, this is only an issue when you want less than 100% of the sail.Mike D