Sailing inyourfootsteps.com

Securing a continuous-line roller headsail in heavy weather conditions

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What is the issue?
Roller-reefing/furling headsails offer excellent reefing potential. They make it possible to reef the headsail to the precise amount of sail required for most every condition by effortlessly turning in-and-out sail. A problem however we found with continuous loop furling systems is they rely on friction to hold the sail in place. After a little wear we found that the rope’s purchase became unreliable, occasionally causing it to slip free under load.

Why address this?
The last thing we wanted in a stiff wind was for the furling gear to slip and spill out all the sail. If the furling gear spilled the genoa in heavy weather conditions the sail would happily flap itself to pieces damaging the furling gear and jeopardising the rig itself in the process.

How to address this?
After a few unwelcome events we prepared a preventer for continuous-loop furling gear (see our system in figure 1) and implemented it when the sail was reefed and under load. We always applied it in heavy weather. rnAll that is required is a strop a few feet long and it does not have to be too heavy a line. Attach one end of the strop to the furling drum’s sail shackle and secure the other end to a deck or pulpit fixing point. If the furling gear should slip the strop takes the load preventing the sail from spilling out. rnYou will have to go forward to set it in place and that is less than desirable, and again to remove it when conditions ease, but this is far better than having to deal with the full headsail unfurling in a blow. If the knots of the preventer bite down too tight they can easily be cut in an emergency. It is worth saying at this point that you can reef down the headsail into a storm jib like shape for heavy weather conditions but do not expect it to give a reasonable performance. However if you do not have a stay sail or other arrangements you have to make do with a dramatically reefed down sail. rnWe also used the strop to tie off the furled headsail when at anchor so it was regularly to hand. Another time that would be unfortunate for the sail to spill out is when the vessel is unattended on anchor and this was a regular procedure after anchoring.rn

With thanks to:
Michael Harpur, Yacht Obsession.

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