My experience is more on the line with Phil's comments, although 10%
seems a little low to me. On my 1977 Catalina 27, I have about a 135
(which was cut down from a hank-on 155-I think) and when I furl it past
maybe 30% I cannot flatten it no matter what I do. In high winds it
just curves around like a chute and can be quite uncontrollable. At
that point I either roll it all the way in and sail under main alone or
if the wind isn't too strong sometimes I'll switch around and drop the
main and sail with the foresail all the way out.
As an alternative in high winds (for a cruiser not a racer), does
anyone have an opinion or experience of having a small jib (but not as
small as a true storm jib) on a wire luff that you can connect to a
u-bolt on the foredeck inside the roller furling and that you would
raise with a second halyard?
Larry
Hardtack
Calvert Marina
Solomon's Island, Maryland
27' Catalina (#3401M77H)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Jul 18, 2008, at 1:55 PM, tim ford wrote:
>>Beyond 10% they start to get dangerous as the material that is sewn
in to form the draft of the sail does not get taken in any faster than
the rest of the material. This pushing of the draft material back into
the unfurled portion of the sail increases the draft of the remaining
sail area dramatically. Increasing draft is opposite from what is
desired when trying to flatten sail and/or reef to deal with building
winds.
Not to be a contrarian, but I don't think I've never witnessed this^.
The RF boats I've salied, four or five different J105s, a C&C 27, a
Hunter 28.5 an ETAP 30 and an Omega 36, among others, all had flatter,
virtually draft-free sails when
a drum furler was used to significantly reduce sail.
If the max draft on a theoretically perfect genoa is at 35-40%, when
the sail area is reduced, that max draft spot is going to be drawn up
closer to the
furling drum, leaving the relatively flat aft 2/3rds of the sail
unfurled as the resulting foil.
Anyway, that's what I've observe........ but maybe I was seeing things
all wrong?
possibly?
tf
