Jib furling issues on the BC23

[John Carney]

Hi

We seem to have had a lot of problems with furling our jib in any sort of strong wind. Whether its incompetence on our part or an inappropriate set up or just bad luck I am not quite sure but what tends to happen now is that it furls very tightly at the bottom and the top section is left flapping in the breeze - sometimes detrimentally as last year the jib ripped and we had to have a new section of sail sown in - this makes the sail a little stiffer at the top which could now be a contributing issue.

We have recently reduced the diameter of the furling line so as to get more turns on the drum but things are still not running smoothly. 

I wonder if anyone can help us-

Has anyone had a similar issue?
Can anyone say what the best procedure is?
Can anyone suggest a furling kit that works any better than the one Matt provides us with?

John and Ian (BC23 #18 2013, Cara)

[David Stockill]

Hi John,

Yes, very similar problems which is not surprising since St Hilda followed Cara out of the Shed back in 2013 and they are likely to have had the same Ronstan furler which was "standard issue" back then.

I changed to a  Selden Furlex 40S about 18months ago (I gather it is now the standard) and it has worked faultlessly. Never a problem. The enclosed cage seems to help achieve a uniform wind-up.

I also rerouted the furler line to take out some friction. I assume that you have the original clamcleat mounted inside the gunwale with lacing eyes to guide the line aft from the furler. To me this was an awkward angle to pull through  - especially being single handed - so I moved to a cheek block mounted on the outside of the cockpit coaming leading to a cam cleat vertically above it. I also have a 16mm ball bearing block on a tail replacing the forward lacing eye.  This all makes for a more straightforward and quicker "pull". Line size is as recommended in the Selden manual.

Hope this help.

Cheers...David

[John Carney]

David

That's REALLY helpful to know, will look into it and let you know how we get on

We have spoken for a while I hope you are getting plenty of good sailing in

Regards John

[Rob Johnstone]

Vagabond has (I think) a Barton furling roller and has the same issue. The first time it happened was interesting.

http://vagabond-round-britain.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/gone-abroad-sorry-no-photos.html

Slackening the halliard (a little) before furling sometimes seemed to help (sometimes).
There was some talk at Mylor last year about the problem being resolved by furling the jib "the other way round" so that the furling line was twisted tighter rather than looser by the furling action. It didn't seem to make any difference on Vagabond and left the UV protector and the wrong side of the sail.
I, too, changed the routing of the control line at the bow, by taking out an eye fixed to the deck aft of the furler. Vagabond has a cleat on the inside of the gunwale by the cockpit to secure the control line. Pulling the furler on when single handed wore a groove in the cockpit coaming until I glued an aluminium strip into the coaming.

[Andy Dingle]

I hope you have read some of my recent posts - I seem to have been blighted with inordinately strong winds when ever I go out in my own BC23 this year- and I sail quite a lot.

In my opinion proper control of the jib, with the ability to shorten it whilst still maintaining a decent shape is quite essential. Prompt and reliable control is important.

I have the aero luff spar on my jib which has proved it's worth so many times that I think it (or a similar set up) should be standard on the BC's - if you get caught out as I did, you'll be very grateful - believe me!

Here's to a good sailing summer...

Andy

[John Carney]

Rob - thanks very much, it sounds like you have experienced similar issues and more challenging still I suspect given that you were swilling around in the North Sea in a blow! When I spoke to Matt about a year ago his advice was to make the halliard as tight as possible and this needs the mast to be raked back a little (which I think ours wasn't) to ensure that the very top of the sail does not come up hard against the pulley (nb: I did previously break this pulley when pulling very hard).

Last summer we ended up with some rips in the sail which I got fixed whilst in Falmouth but the sail is now stiffer on the luff making it even harder to furl neatly. Incidentally the sailmaker reckoned that we were furling the job the wrong way round so beware (but my sailing mate does not agree that we were!)

Given Davids response I am tempted to think that we should find a new set up, but hoping this isn't pricey

We too have had groove problems! The gellocoat seems quite soft

BTW Rob - sorry to hear you are selling Vagabond, do you have a new boat in mind?

[John Carney]

Andy - thanks your your advice too, I will look up the gear you mention

I remember Matt saying that the jib on the BC is not meant to be a conventional furling type  and that it's meant to be either fully in or fully out but I am not totally satisfied by this suggestion, there are times when you might like to compromise!

[Andy Dingle]

The aero luff spar can be found here -

http://www.aeroluffspars.co.uk/Cruiser/Cruisers/Cruisers.html

Essentially it is just the same as the furling systems used on bigger yachts, but the jib is permanently fitted on a carbon fibre spar with top and bottom furlers - and a round clear plastic spacer to separate it from the forestay. Being flexible it stows down on either side deck quite neatly, even for trailing, it's protected in a sock cover and is very quickly hoisted and tensioned with the jib halyard and tensioned up hard with the winch in the normal manner.

It appears to be now marketed through Cornish Crabbers (?), but I'm sure Matt could help you out.
I've mentioned to Matt several times now that I think it should not just be an option on the Baycruisers, but a standard fitting. Essential in my opinion, but I suppose he has to keep costs down. As you say, the vain hope you can reef the jib around itself is just not going to work.

Pic attached to give an idea of the type of sail shape I achieve - if you want to know more, happy to help.

Cheers

[Rob Johnstone]

John,
 I found that raking the mast aft (to stop the jib from interfering with the halliad block) made the weather helm in Vagabong stronger than ever. I had Matt add about 3 inches to the bottom of the mast ( and lower the main gooseneck fitting too). This let me trim the mast to the vertical whilst maintaining tension in the jib (and also let me raise the main so that it was tensioned all the way along the leading edge). I then found that I could vary the amount of weather helm by playing with the mast rake ( not whilst under sail!). At one point I inadvertantly trimmed the rake too far forward and experienced lee helm which was most unnerving.....having the boat turn down wind in a strong puff quite took me by surprise.

And, for the record, Vagabond will not be replaced.

[John Carney]

Thanks again o everyone for their advice. In the end I spoke to Matt and his advise was to replace the luff wire with a stiffer 6 mm version. As it turned out the sailmakers who did the job (Banks Sails, Fareham) replaced the wire with what they said was a stiffer 4mm version and tightened the cringes as well as repairing a rip. We have yet to try it in anger but on its first outing in lighting winds it furled very well

[SteveWD]

We have found that tightening rig tension improves jib furling on the BC26. The tighter the rig, the less slack there is in the forestay and so less articulation occurs in the bottle-screw below the furling drum when furling line tension is applied, in turn leading to less the pull required on the furling line to start the furling.

[John Carney]

Thanks, yes we have found the same which in the case of the BC23 means having the mast raked back by about 1 degree otherwise the Halyard is hard up against the top of the mast (in fact I broke the pulley tightening it once)

[Jonathan Stuart]

SteveWD,

We've just taken delivery of out BC26 and while we're extremely pleased in many ways, the jib furling today has been very frustrating - I've hurt my back just trying to get the jib to furl :-(. We've tightened the forestay bottlescrew as much as I could (there's now about 1cm total thread left) but this has made no difference and I'm concerned that this will now mean we have to adjust the bottlescrews each time we rig/de-rig because we could only just get enough tension on the spinnaker halyard to attached the forestay when we rigged. When you say you tightened rig tension, was this just the forestay or also the spreaders? And has this meant you now have to loosen/re-righten the bottlescrews when de-rigging/rigging?