Roller Furling

[Jim Spencer]

Has anyone put roller furling on the club footed jib? Any pros or cons?

 

[Ed Schenck]

Considered, then rejected idea.

I studied the way Island Packet rigs their staysail and was prepared to do it. Then I read an article about the benefits of being able to easily hank on a stormsail. Later another article surfaced about modifying the staysail so it can be easily reefed into a stormsail. Since we plan to go offshore I want that flexibility. Plus I save the cost of a furler and a new staysail.I have seen this modification but not one closeup on an H37C. But I think you can find some discussion here in the Forum Archives.

 

[John Reid]

Same here (decided against)

I too decided against a furler for the staysail. Reason: I want to make the inner stay removeable so I have the option of sailing sloop or cutter rigged. (I'm going to get rid of the staysail boom.)John ReidCheese 'n Crackers

 

[jcherubini]

Go for it.

Jim–I may differ with some but I say ABSOLUTELY go with the roller-furling on the inner jib. As a matter of fact I would get rid of the boom as well and have a larger stays'l cut– like a 110 or 125 of the inner foretriangle and let it lap past the mast like a little 3/4 rig there. With two whisker poles this could be a really terrific downwind set-up and you have little need to go to other sails. This was the typical non-spinnaker rig in the '60s and I wonder why it has been abandoned in favour of having several very large, expensive specialty sails to take up most of the vee-berth when you are nuts enough to take them everywhere. (Sometimes I think stuff like this was invented by MasterCard.)The drawback is in tacking both sails at once whereas the clubfooted jib is (sort of) self-tending. I think that for this effort what you get is a very sweet-setting three-sail set-up that looks positively adorable when trimmed right. No clubfooted jib ever really looks or pulls right– it's a concession to convenience. In the days before roller furling was de rigeuer we had two loose-footed headsails on a Cherubini 44 cutter. You had to go out on the bowsprit to bring in the yankee! But in rough weather the boat held course very well under the inner stays'l alone which as I said lapped back like a little 110. It was very docile and on a beam reach we once whipped the Navy Academy's Herreshoff 64-footer with that boat. But that's another story!Just a thought for you to consider over the winter.J Cherubini IICherubini Art & Nautical Design Org.JComet aol.com