In times when roller furling technologies become ever more alluring, Veloce goes back to traditional jib hanks.
Why?
The Jeanneau Sun Fast 32i, at the time of its production, came off the factory with a Facnor r130. This used to be Facnor’s racing complete furling system. It consists of a double track forestay foil in aluminum, drum, base attachment kit, top swivel and halyard deflector.
After cruising Veloce for 2 seasons and racing 1…
…our experience with roller furling and foil
- Great for coastal cruising and lazy days. Unfortunately though, I suffer of “trim paranoia” (I guess a common bug in this community) and very seldom remember to “just” lazy along the coast
- Great in and out of harbor… if only I did not sail with horizontal battens
- The halyard has sometimes wrapped itself around the forestay when unfurling. Of course, I would not notice until the time to furl in came and the wind picked up
- I have never sailed with roller reefed headsail. I just don’t think it really works. Not well enough for my liking anyway. Bad shape, tough chafing and the sorts
- With the sheets hanging 2 meters over the foredeck there is no option to jibe the spinnaker with dip pole technique
- The spinnaker head often gets stuck between the mast and halyard deflector, with the imaginable panic of a spinnaker that cannot be doused
- Sail change is just too painful
- Firstly, with vertical battens, it is not realistic (doublehanded or solo)
- With roller battens it is possible as the battens are horizontal. Changing to or from a light genoa is ok. To and from a heavy jib however is just an impossibility with the sail blown and washed overboard all the time
- Without bowman keeping tension on the luff, the luff-rope has a tendency to slip out of the foil track when hoisting. Often getting stuck and nearly impossible to pull down again. Can you imagine that alone aboard?
What we hope to achieve with hanks
- Well, obviously resolving a bunch of the issues above
- Sail shape. Others have explained this better than I ever can hope to. Swedish sailor Jimmy Hellberg published a great article (in Swedish) about this very topic not long ago. Highly recommended read
- More sail area
- The opening between foot and foredeck is a great source of induced drag due to pressure equalizing under the sail rather than at the leech. With a clean forestay, the new headsails will sweep the foredeck
- Foil and drum weigh about 10kg, distributed mainly at the bow and aloft. All the wrong places
- More effective sail change, with less potential problems. I expect more sail changes and therefore better over all performance
- I am looking forward to be able to reef my jib. Lots of advantages here. What a dream to reef headsail solo and keep mainsail area downwind… This was of course possible with the foil as well, however 1) friction in the system, 2) unattached luff and 3) loss of furling possibility made it a no-go
- Here I believe the philosophies less-is-more and KISS (keep-it-simple-stupid) is the way to go. Less that can go wrong. Easily inspected stay.
- I just think it is so cool to look at the bow and see a heap of sail canvas under a flying spinnaker, rather than a rolled sausage!
What kind of hanks then?
Soft hanks are light and, well of course, soft. However, since there will not be a foil on the stay, hanks don’t really need to be soft. Besides, I find soft hanks difficult to open with wet and cold hands, especially with gloves. So no soft hanks for us.
The choice is there between piston hanks and Wichard snap hanks. I am quite used to piston hanks and never tried the “one hand hanks” from Wichard. My sailmaker has however scared me with nightmare stories of sailors getting either a flying spinnaker halyard or lazy guy “hanked” under sail. This swung it. Piston hanks it is.
As a bonus, the forestay is in perfect conditions. It is a 7mm dyform wire with toggle and turnbuckle.
We are looking forward to try out the new arrangement! Once the new headsails are delivered and tested, an article is sure to follow. Stay tuned.
How did this work out? I’m uncertain how you quickly drop, unhank and then roll the foot of the jib cleanly on your own.
I don’t like roller reefing. I will be setting up my Seawolf 30 using the same jib system as the K1 racing dinghy (with a horizontal jib boom and a vertical ‘dangly’ pole against the mast).
Chris, do you mean how the reefing works? The jib has an extra tack, about a meter higher up. At the base of the forestay, there is a line with a snap shackle, going through a block and back to the cockpit. The jib has also an extra clew, with a strop hidden in a pocket along the luff.
Before reefing, I take a walk to the bow and attach the snap shackle to the extra tack and an extra pair of sheets at the strop to the clew. Back to the cockpit, release a meter of jib halyard, pull the tack line down to the bottom, tighten the halyard, sheet with the new sheets.
There is no need to unhook the old tack or roll the bottom. On a longer stretch however, once the reef is in, it is advisable to do so, to avoid having the foot flapping on deck. Won’t the double pole set up be heavy and complicated on a 30ft? What is the reasoning?