furling drum and upper swivel

[A Martel - JOELAN]

Does anyone have a scheme that you designed for the furler for the genoa and staysail? pictures?

what type of furling drum and the upper swivel? Thanks

[Ron Jesche CH21' Sealion']

Hi Andre,

The first 2 pictures show the endless line furler I use on the bowsprit. At around 15 to 18 knots of wind speed I furl the Genoa and unfurl the Jib. The boat will loose around 1/2 a knot of boat speed but sail much better. The furler is a Profurl NEX 0.9

I tried to post more pictures but it said the message was too long. 

If you would like some more pics let me know.

[Ron Jesche CH21' Sealion']

This photo shows the furler for the jib. And a dolphin because it makes a nice picture!

This is a structural furler. The forestay fits between the drum and the swivel at the hounds. The jib hanks to the forestay and attaches to the drum.When furling, the drum and the forestay turn winding up the jib with it. This one takes a bit more to get your head around, and there is no adjustment to the forestay and it must be cut exactly to length.

[A Martel - JOELAN]

My sail manufacturer recommends a Furling Drum instead of a Continuous Line-Drive Furler because it will be easier to manage if I regularly move the sailboat with my trailer. Your comments please.

[Ron Jesche CH21' Sealion']

I hope this reply does not get too long winded but i wouldn't want you to make the wrong decision without all of the information.

I will address the jib first.

I hope your sail maker is not trying to supply a furler with a luff extrusion, this would be far too cumbersome to rig every time you go for a sail. It would be ok if you were to leave the boat on the water for the season.

Over the last two years, I average sailing Sealion 3 times a month, I single hand a fair bit and having the endless line furlers makes this easy and safe out on the water. One of the problems with the single line drum furlers is that the the angle of the furling line entering the drum is critical so that the rope does not ride over its self on the drum, leading to the possibility of not being furl the sail when you need to.I know Ryerson and Annie with 'Elvee' are changing from one of these furlers this season because they have had trouble with theirs jamming.

I took these photos this morning [ a good excuse to have a coffee on board before work!] they show the furler in more detail.

These furlers are expensive though, they cost as much as the sail. The other option is to not have a furler for the jib at all and have a down haul line at the head of the sail to pull the sail down on deck. It can stay there until you need it and can be easily hiosted. Looking at some early articles of the Cape Cutter 19 this is what Dudley had envisaged when he first designer her.

I will talk about the genoa in the next post as I am not able to load more pictures.

[Ron Jesche CH21' Sealion']

The genoa is quite different to the jib, as this is a flying sail without a stay.

These endless line furlers were deigned for code zero and reaching spinakers on prodders of racing boats.

This suits the bowsprit of the Cape Henry perfectly. Getting the angle of the furling line correct for a single line furler is even more difficult on the bowsprit.

It can certainly be done but I have found the endless line furlers NEVER jam. They take a little getting used to but I wouldn't be without them. If you look at my video of the drone footage of Sealion you will see how easily the sails come in and out.

The photo shows the genoa furler with the snap shackle. Clip it onto the bowsprit fitting,  hoist the halyard and you are ready to go, takes less than one minute.

If I could only afford one furler this is the one I would have and I would have the jib on deck ready to hoist after furling the genoa.

This system works well for me but does not mean what others are doing is wrong, it's just now that  I have these furlers I wouldn't want to be without them.

I hope this helps. Ron

[Daniel]

 I have been following this conversation with great interest. Ron, you mentioned that you have a NEX 0.9 as the code zero furler on the bowsprit. What are you using as the structural furler attached to the staysail? 

Daniel

[Juan Uribe]

Ron:  Sorry for may confusion. You have a furling Genoa, a furling staysail and a furling jib?  I planned to have the furling drum at the bowsprit for the genoa or the jib depending on conditions. And the  staysail is not furling. 

Juan

[Dudley Dix]

I'll stick my oar in here. Ron has been doing an admirable job of "show and tell" for the headsails and furlers. The way that he has done it is a good option. The soft furler to the end of the forestay is needed so that the bowsprit can fold back and is what I intended there. 

For the stay to the stemhead the hard furler does that job well also. My intention for the design, as the alternative to a hard furler, is a hanked jib/staysail, running on the forestay wire, with a downhaul line led aft. To do this, tie a line to the head cringle of the sail and run it down through the hanks to a point perpendicular to the clew cringle, then through the clew cringle and back to the hank. From there down through the remaining hanks to the tack, then run it aft to a stopper at a cockpit winch or a cleat. When striking the sail, haul in on that line and it will bunch up the sail on the foredeck and keep it docile until you are able to lash it properly.

DD

[Richard & Monique Styles]

Hi Ron

Do you have experience with the Ronstan Series 60 continuous line furlers as an alternative to the Nex 0.9 for the genoa? They can't be used as a top down furler, unless you go to the Series 80, but the price is about a third of the Nex 0.9.

https://racerxmarine.com.au/product/ronstan-series-60-gennaker-furler-set/

Cheers Richard

[Ron Jesche CH21' Sealion']

Hi Richard,

The endless line are basically all the same now.

My sail maker is a friend and looked after me with the furlers as he is a distributor.

No need for a top down furler, they are for spinnakers.

Cheers

Ron

[Cyrus Jordan]

Ron - Hope launch in July/Aug 2014. The build is essentially done. Few rigging questions for you as I want to copy your rigging : 1) what brand is your jib structural furler?; 2) what did you use as a stem head plate to fix the forestay/furler and how did you fix it to the hull? 3) how and where did you attach the mast shrouds to the cabin trunk? and 4) how and where did you attach the bowsprit shrouds to the hull? 

thanks in advance for your input, 

Cy Jordan