new headsail for the Morgan 28

[Jim 5757]

Well folks, it's high time to replace the headsail on our Morgan 28 OI. The original 135% Morgan sail (40 yrs old this year) has had it! Now, here's the issue...
We're using the Shaefer 650 free flying roller furler with no foil. The mfr states a SWL of 3500 lb. for this unit. The existing sail has a 3/8" dia s/s luff wire which is quite heavy and has a lower eye which is too fat to fit the furler drum ( I had to grind the eye down to fit).
Some local guys have suggested we have the new sail made with either 1/4" or 5/16" luff wire since the 3/8" seems a bit overkill (17000 lb breaking strength!) considering that our headstay itself is only 3/8".
We look forward to your input...


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[Stu Jackson]

Stronger is always better. Have you considered just getting a mixture of shackles to mate the smaller and larger openings between the tack and the drum?

 

[Don Guillette]

Give the folks at this web site (sailboatowners.com) a call and see what they think. Sailors should always give Phil & Bly's company a shot on any marine products they're thinking of buying. How much has West Marine or BoatUS done for sailors lately? Do they provide all the stuff FREE that www.sailboatowners.com provides? Nope, they don't.

 

[RichH]

Stronger is NOT better in this instance as the luff shape of your jib/genoa is totally dependent on the tension in that 'wire'. A 'stronger' wire will allow too much sag in the wire and that will result in 'pizz poor' pointing ability.
Free flying furriers are designed for just that ... free flying sails that generally dont NEED proper luff tension.
Sails for going 'upwind' are usually cut/designed to be flown on headstays/forestays (including foils) that are at near 15% tension ... on the 'normally' specified 'wire' headstay/forestay. If the sail is flown on a wire, etc. that doesn't or cannot be so 'tensioned', then the sail will usually have to be 'recut' to accommodate or correct for the larger sag of the wire when at ~15kts. of wind strength.

The best advice I can give is to direct contact the Schaefer (home office) TECHNICAL or Application Engineering department ... and see if this furler can withstand the needed strain needed to correctly SHAPE a jib/genoa for going 'upwind'. Youll need to supply the exact geometry of your boat, the 'strength' of winches or 'model numbers, the usual distance that your 'fairlead cars' are located along the 'genoa track', etc.
I'll make the bet that this furler will only be able to be used in 'light to very moderate' conditions for going 'upwind'.... let the Schaefer tech folks determine this for you. Id also give the probability that the tension on that luff wire to be able to give 'reasonable' upwind luff shape is going to overload and jam that furler, until you 'unload' it.

If 'approved' by Schaefer, consider to use dyneema high tech low stretch 'rope' as 'luff rope' on the free-furler ... then you wont have problems trying to bend and 'stuff' a stiff 'wire' wire into a sail bag.