Interesting and timely question! This weekend I had the 'experience' of
finding out what happens on a P-19 when you have a genoa on a furling
system, note furling and NOT furling/reefing. To say the least, we were in
peril.
We headed out on Sunday with a moderate wind to our backs, had a delightful
sail and make anchorage an hour and a half later in Andrews Bay on Lake
Washington. Just as we drop anchor a front came through, but we were okay
and enjoyed lunch and relaxed for a while and let the wind die down a bit.
About 3:30 we decided to head back. At this point white caps were breaking
on the open parts of the lake. As we unfurled the genoa, it began to luff
so violently that the main could not even sustain it's shape. This was a
very unnerving combination of noise and movement. We tried reefing the
genoa, but to no effect as the sheet angle is much too flat since there
aren't any fairleads forward to help trim the sheet. Finally after
wallowing in white caps, and wondering when the sail was going to shred, we
managed to furl the genoa and make way with just the main, albeit very
slowly. At this point I was in control and felt safe and we actually
started to enjoy ourselves again.
Looking back what we did next was downright stupid. The wind had died a
bit more, and we were making no way at all with just the main, so we
decided to again try the genoa. About this time the wind again increased
and the same extreme luffing occured. We were literally in irons due to
the luffing. Again we managed to furl the genoa only this time, the genoa
became a mess and rolled up with a large section about 8' up that was
unfurled. When the wind hit this mess, it forced the bow very quickly
around and were forced to sail on a broad reach which put us between a rock
(Seward Park) and a hard place (Mercer Island).
We then lowered the main, fired up the motor and headed straight for the
marina which was dead into the wind. However there were several times when
the wind was so strong and the genoa luffing so badly that we could not
make way with our Honda 5! On one strong gail we were blown downwind
almost instantly. The way the motor was shuddering was not at all a
comfortable sight. This was when I began to wonder if I would be making it
back that night. No sails up, cannot sail if we did, and the motor is not
capable of getting us back. Great.
I made the decision to head towards the lee side of the hills surrounding
lake where it was calmer, which meant falling off and taking the wind, but
atleast we were moving and in the right general direction. This did the
help matters very much, and we did make it back to the marina in one piece.
I didn't sleep well that night at all however.
Lessons we learned. Our boat has a Harken furler with a genoa. It hasn't
worked right from day one, especially furling. Seems like the furling line
isn't wrapped enough to fully furl the genoa. When it screws up, there
isn't much you can do on the water. It's also clear that whomever setup
this system never sailed in heavier weather, as the only fairlead for the
jib sheet is parallel to the front of the cockpit sole. The angle of the
sheet is much too flat and doesn't tension the luff, even in light winds it
will luff. Lastly the furler is just that, and not made to reef. From
what I have seen reefing-furlers have a stiff/solid forestay. We are also
very glad we didn't get less than a 5 horse for our P-19, as at times this
was not enough to counter the wind, waves and sail action of the genoa.
>From what we can determine we would do better with either a traditional
working/jib/genoa sail set with traditional forestay AND tracks/cars to
properly trim. Or we need a REEFING-furler AND tracks/cars to properly
trim the furler. The question that I have is where those tracks should be?
So to all you mighty Potter people, dissect this account and please tell me
what you think. There were a number of rookie mistakes, I am confident
however that should we have been able to properly reef and trim the genoa
none of this would have happened.
-Scott