[C320-list] Furling Woes

[Joe Geiger]

Thanks for the suggestions Scott.  I will drop the headsail and put a few more turns on the drum and then re-hoist it. I was wondering why it was so difficult to pull the furling line from the cam cleat. Adding more wraps will definitely help with that.  I’ll also check to see there are no loose parts as Sara described. I will  try releasing the leach cord and move the cars aft to the upwind position. I think I need to experiment more to find the correct angle. 

I’m sure the boat could use all new sails as the ones on there are the original sails but I just shelled out to replace the standing and running rigging so that is not an option for me this year. I’ll report my findings after our overnight cruise this weekend. Thanks to all for the advice.  This list is such a great resource.

- Joe



> On Jun 25, 2019, at 9:32 AM, Scott Thompson <surprise at thompson87.com> wrote:
> 
> There should be some wraps on the drum when the sail is furled completely plus a few extra turns to wrap the jib sheets around the sail. If you do not have that then most likely you did not add enough wraps to the drum before raising the sail the first time. I make sure that almost all of the furling line is on the drum before I attach the sail at the start of the season. That is, I put enough wraps on the drum so that I can just cleat off the other end without much of a "tail" at the cockpit end.
> 
> BTW, I generally furl the sail pretty loose, cleat the furling line, and then pull more on the jib sheets to tighten up the furl a bit.  Contrary to what others are telling you, I've generally had best results with the jib cars in upwind position, not all the way forward. My sail is a 145.
> 
> It's possible that your sail is just tired. A blown out jib will not furl well, and you will definitely need to release the leech cord to get a good furl.
> 
> 
> On 6/24/2019 3:35 PM, Joe Geiger wrote:
>> Thanks for all the advice.
>> 
>> Jeff is correct that I can't seem to get it to furl without the barber pole effect. I believe the sail is a 150 genoa. I figured positioning the genoa car all the way forward would do the trick but it did not.  Then I tried it at several other locations on the genoa car track but did not have much luck… still got the same effect.  We were trying to furl it in 20 knots of wind and the leach was flapping like crazy which added to the problem. We tried again when we got back to our mooring so we could focus on just furling.  My wife kept downward tension on the clew and we got close but there was still sail showing through.  It wrapped it super tight and the sheets didn’t even wrap around once.  We let it out and furled it looser and got the proper number of wraps. I think replacing the furling line is a good place to start.
>> 
>> Should the drum still have line on it when fully unfurled or should there still be a few more wraps?  Currently there are no wraps around the drum when fully unfurled. Sometimes that makes it hard to release it from the cam cleat.
>> 
>> - Joe
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jun 24, 2019, at 12:28 PM, Jeff Hare <Catalina at thehares.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Joe,
>>> 
>>> The things that come to mind right away are (first off what Dave said below).
>>> 
>>> 1. Maybe you don't have enough wraps of furling line on the drum.
>>> 2. If you can't get more line on the drum without it being too full, perhaps the line is incorrectly sized
>>> 3. The furling line has too much stretch in it.  Need a very strong, thin, low stretch line for this application.
>>> 4. When furling in high wind or with a lot of wind load, the sail will wrap much more tightly and require more turns so you need to allow a minimum of 10 extra turns on the drum to account for a tight wrap and to wrap the genoa lines around 3 or 4 times to secure the sail.
>>> 
>>> When we furl our sail in heavy wind, we always have a few wraps of genoa line around the sail and then still have a couple wraps left on the drum.
>>> 
>>> -Jeff
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: C320-list <c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com> On Behalf Of hoopdtwo
>>> Sent: Monday, June 24, 2019 11:51 AM
>>> To: C320-List at Catalina320.com
>>> Subject: Re: [C320-list] Furling Woes
>>> 
>>> Maybe you don't  have enough turns of furler line on the furler drum to start with? The drum would stop turning when you try to furl the sail if you have pulled all the line out of the drum.Dave Hupe94 Cat320 (#32)Holland, MISent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
>>> -------- Original message --------From: Joe Geiger <joe.geiger at gmail.com> Date: 6/24/19  10:39 AM  (GMT-05:00) To: C320-List at Catalina320.com Subject: [C320-list] Furling Woes This is our first season with our 2000 C320 and also the first boat I’ve owned with a roller furling headsail. My boat has the Schaeffer 2100 and I find it very difficult to furl it without having any of the sail showing. I’ve tried furling upwind, downwind, on a beam reach but I have only once been able to furl it where The sacrificial fabric covers the entire length of the furled sail. Ironically I did this by myself on the mooring. My wife has kept tension on the jibsheet when we furl and we got pretty close but there was still a bit of white showing.Any recommendations on the best way to furl and not show any white from the sail?Joe--Joe GeigerVega #722Greenwich Cove, RI
>>> 
> -- 
> Scott Thompson
> Surprise, #653
>