by Stormy » Mon Aug 15, 2016 10:00 am
David, in reply to your question:
"I’m intrigued as to what you do with the free end of the loop! Obviously you have to bring it aft to the cockpit and fix it somehow. Do you then have to jam it to prevent the wind catching the sail when furled and trying to unwind it? Also, presumably you have to prevent it going over the side and if you run a continuous line through blocks on the bowsprit and deck (as with the standard single line furler) you would have to do this before splicing the two ends. This would then mean you could not take it off to stow below with the sail after a sailing trip."
I run both sides of the continuous line loop back (through the original single line furler lead -eyes) and then through a jammer on the cabin roof (I use the staysail halyard jammer as I have got rid of my forestay and use the staysail - with a drum furler - as the forestay, which results in less tangles). The furler works on the basis that it is always disengaged except when there is pressure on the rope. The jammer thus works perfectly to keep the pressure on when the sail is furled. It also works to stop the line washing overboard when the sail is unfurled. If you take the sail off, the line loop is simply drawn out of the jammer and leads and can be easily fed back into them when you put it back on.
In addition to its standard use, I find it works well in light winds when you have the problem of the genoa not wanting to tack round the forestay: you can quickly shorten sail to get it round the forestay and then release. The release occurs immediately the pressure comes off the line - with the old drum furler, I found this increased the risk of a jam. Its much safer than having to run up to the foredeck and back to clear the sail each time you tack!
Best wishes,
Patrick (Stormy)