Re: Furls v Hanks

JBlumhorst@aol.com
Wed, 3 Nov 1999 14:02:05 EST


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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In a message dated 11/3/99 10:30:40 AM Pacific Standard Time,
ttursine@earthlink.net writes:

> Furlers can fail with the headsail exposed, a massive bummer if a super
> squall is upon you. My simple downhaul can only fail if the line breaks, an
> extremely unlikely occurrence -- and one which can in any case be overcome
> oh-so-quickly by popping the top 1/3 of my body out the front hatch and
> clawing down the sail.

My CDI furler hasn't ever fouled in a way that I couldn't fix it with a
judicious tug on the furling line or jib sheet. If the lead is fair, it
works beautifully. on a rare occassion, we do a sloppy job of furling it in
(without keeping a little tension on the jib sheets), but that usually just
means we have to unroll it a little and try again.

But anything's possible, so it's nice to have an emergency plan in place.

In an real emergency or if all else failed, I think a rigger's knife would
make quick work of un-fouling the jib and striking it. If the furler failed
with the sail partially wrapped , I could cut the furling line in 10 seconds
if and unwrap it. A quick slash of the knife would sever the jib haylard and
I could pull the sail down off the extrusion. I'm small, so I don't know if
I could reach the CDI from the front hatch.

Sure, I'd have to replace the furling line and jib halyard, but that's a
small price to pay for saving my butt.

When I'm changing the headsail on the extrusion, it normally takes only a few
seconds to pull it down. I have tiny snap shackles at the end of the jib
halyard and the tack of each sail, not a hard-to-undo knot. Not a big deal
at all.

I once had to go forward and manually wrap up the CDI in pretty nasty
weather. -- 30+ knots of wind and really horrible chop with a landlubber
aboard. It was really gusty and we were just going out one mile to look at
some tall ships, so we were motoring without having even raised the sails I
had just put the rigging back together in a hurry and I decided not to do a
sea-trial under those conditions.

As it turned out, that was a good decision. I had forgotten to put the
cotterpin in the headstay turnbuckle. The turnbuckle started to unwind, and
the jib started to unwrap on it's own. It was very scarey, but I was able to
go forward, wrap up the jib, and secure it with a few sail ties, while my
husband kept her nose to the wind with the motor. I took my main halyard
forward and tied it off to the bow, just in case the turnbuckle decided to
part... I didn't want that mast coming down!

Fair winds,
Judy B