Roller furling in heavy wind.

[Pthelen]

This is my fist season on my boat and I went out in a heavy wind on a small lake with my nine-year-old son. I had reefed my main before setting sail and was disinclined to unfurl the jib. My son thought otherwise and let it out. We were soon overpowered and in attempting to furl the jib I was unable to get if fully retracted. We ended up with the mast at the water. I was able to swing over and step onto the centerboard while my son stayed in the boat. This brought the mast right up (faster than I expected) I had thought I could get back in the boat but I was not fast enough and ended up in the water. My son brought down the main sail while I climbed back in. There was no harm and we both gained a better understanding of how the boat behaves but we still don’t know how or why we have such difficulty getting the jib fully retracted. Any suggestions?

 

[Glenn17427]

Your lucky !

Nice job on your recovery and keeping the boat from turtling, I don't know if you have a float at the top of your mast or have foam/sealed your mast as many of us have done to prevent the boat from turtling but this hould be done !I too have had some difficulty in furling the jib in strong winds, I usually will head into the wind (in Irons) which takes the wind out of the sail to allow me to furl the jib and then continue my course.I also will sail reefed and only use a small portion of the jib if needed.I like sailing reefed and without the jib, especialy while sailing solo, more relaxing just to sail leisurely.

 

[Brian M H23]

Reason being..

It furls up much tighter, but you only get the same number of wraps! You can wrap extra line onto the furler (easiest when the sail is not there) Then re-hoist, attach your sheets, and as long as the sheets stay attached and dont do circles around the sail, you wil be able to furl it all (provided you can fit enough rope in the drum)

 

[guyt]

Your halyard may have wrapped around furler.

If your halyard is wrapping around your roller and preventing you from rolling up the sail, a simple extension of a foot or so from the head of the jib to the swivel may be all you need. This lets the halyard go all the way to the top of the mast so it cant get wrapped up on the furler.Take the jib sail and disconnect the tack from the drum and take the jib all the way up until the halyard stops. Now measure the distance from the tack of the sail to the drum connection point. Now, add a line of that length from the head of the sail to the top swivel.By doing this, your halyard cannot wrap around your furler because it has very little exposed line - most of it is now inside your mast.