3a. Roll out part of the jib - less than you think you need! Keep the furling line under control at all times and DO NOT let more jib out than you want to test! It is MUCH easier to unfurl more jib than furl excess jib. You may find that furling the jib requires more force than you can provide manually. At up to 15 knots (max), I can sail downwind with my 150 genoa. At that wind speed I can not furl it manually if I turn into the wind just due to the load of the flogging sail. I have to furl this sail at these wind speeds going downwind so it is less loaded AND I have to re-run the furling line from the normal 57mm Harken block and cam to a large spin sheet check block and a winch. I bent and mangled the block side plates trying this the first time.
Mark
Mark,
Some sage advice here, though I would raise some cautionary flags about 3a.
While I can't make a blanket statement about *all* furlers, I believe that a typical roller furling system should *not* require the use of a winch, and using one
could result in damage. For instance, the manual for my Harken does not prohibit it absolutely but provides this warning: "The furling line should pull readily. The amount of force required is related to the amount of wind, but Unit should never require use of a winch to furl. If the sail will not furl, or if furling requires a great deal of effort, there is a problem with the system. Consult the Troubleshooting Guide on Page 32. Do not use a winch to force a system to turn. If you are certain that the system is operating properly, you may use a winch to make furling easier" (
Harken MKIV Jib Reefing and Furling Unit 0, p. 28). So I interpret this somewhat ambiguously worded caution as follows: If you absolutely
require the use of a winch to furl, then something is wrong. If you
can furl without one but want to make it easier, then you may use a winch. Regardless, it's clear enough that one should exercise care and not just crank the snot out of the furling line.
My sail maker suggested a method to me that seems to work pretty well, and I've used it to good effect when single handing. He says just bring the boat head to wind as you would through a tack, and as the boat is going bow to wind then quickly pull in the sail with the furling line. I find that I can reef the sail without it flogging much, if any, longer than it would be going through a tack. In fact, I can usually get it reefed as far as I want and then using the boat's forward momentum simply fall back off to my original tack if that's what I want. I also find that I can roll in the jib entirely, if that's my goal, with only a bit more flogging than would be the case if I were going through a tack. My sail maker's advice is consistent with the Harken manual (again on p. 28): "In a breeze you must
completely luff sail by
totally slacking jib sheets before furling" (emphasis in the original). By doing this with the boat in the process of sweeping head to wind, it keeps the flogging under control vs. e.g., simply blowing the sheet on something like a beam reach.
I agree also that furling downwind can be a good thing as well, because of the lower apparent wind and also because you can blanket the jib with the main, but I find that my autopilot sometimes gets squirrely on such a course. It's a technique I'd use with crew aboard, though, when a competent helmsman could keep the boat in course. Naturally, if one's autopilot does a better job than my ST2000 on such a course then that technique would be fine single handed.