J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Jib Furler

I am considering installing a Jib Furler: I mostly cruise with my wife and beer-can/OD racing came third in my wish plan after offshore racing...

Any feedback on:

• How practical is the removal of the drum on Harken MkIV or alike?
• Can the class #1 and #3 used when the drum is removed?
• Do you need to replace or modify your headstay?
• Do you start about what you lost each time you head up?

Last, I love the North Sails that came with my boat, but Newport is farther than Marblehead/Salem from Boston. Any advice in term of Sail Lofts up there?

Cheers,

Ask David Bows about sailing with a furler, both his 1 and 3 fit and I don't think the furler slows him down. As for a North Loft, there is one in Salem Mass at Dions yacht Yard, Great service and the sales team is excellent about getting the best bang for your buck. I can't remember the number off hand, but i'm sure you can get it.
Luke Buxton
Evelyn #179

Luke -- I have a 155% size of the Taffetta 3DL [talked about in the attached link] on Vee Jay on roller furling ... it was touted as a roller furling friendly 3DL ... how do you like yours and the North Direct program for OD sails?
I was not happy about the way they did the UV Cover.

Luke

I have a 155% Taffetta 3DL on Madcap as well. It is reefable and is surprisly fast reefed. I spec. a rounded (J105 type of foot). I dont have a UV cover on mine, I just take it off or run a sock up the spinn haylard. I have the Harken MKIV with a new head stay in it.

I have raced 3 years with it and never removed the drum. I think it is a great set-up for PHRF racing.

Georges - There are two ways to race with the Harken. The first is to just drop the top collar below the track feed. This allows you to do sail changes etc. and to tack to the deck,and you do not to remove the drum. This is what we do most of the time. However for the NOODs and the NA's we completely remove the drum because it looks better in pictures (-: and it keeps the lower 2 feet of the sail nice and true.

Dropping the collar takes about 30 seconds. Removing the drum takes about 30 minutes.

I have my racing sails cut as if I did not have a furler except my #2, that is what I keep on the furler. The North Loft in Salem made me a great #2 last year.

I personally do not think it hurts us any great amount. Yea I am sure there are times I might want a bit more headstay sag but I can tune the rig to get it close. I can still easily get 6"-8" of sag.

Three of us here have all North Sails from the guys in Salem and they are excellent with excellent service - highly recommend them.

North Loft - 978-745-1400 - Jack Slatery for Sails and Brad White or Steve Cruse for service.

Thanks to all of you - this is tremendously useful.

David, one last question regarding the #2, since I have no idea of its size.
Can you use it with the jib track?
My plan was to use the biggest headsail size that still fits the jib track.
I am not thrilled by extending the genoa track and I found that the #3 is the right sail for my wife and me.
If it is light I will just use my #1 - directly - as you suggested.

The sailing gap I am trying to cover comfortably is between 2 reefs main alone, no jib, and 2 reefs with the jib. In those conditions, I found that 1 reef in the main, main alone is the right power but with so much weather helm and drag that it is both tiring and slow.

Since I want to race single and double offshore, I also would like it to cover between #3 and storm jib.

Cheers,

Last winter we had a lot of heavy wind here in SWFL. I mistakenly thought the 155% 3DL -- "Max apparent wind 23 kts" by the way -- would be able to take reefing. In one race we had gusts to 38 ... I was double reefed main and perhaps 1/3 out on a 155% ... and other regattas that were ~25 true with reefing to suit. and full weight crew. (Main is 7.8 oz fully battened.) Vee Jay is basically a "cruising" set-up J30.

that was a brand new sail now showing signs of filament separation along the luff. So OK we have a 7 month racing season down here and we used that sail for practice as well.

toward the end of the year I went back to my heavy duty dacron 145 and that sailed better in heavy wind with minor reefing than the 3DL over reefed.

If you talk to the sail guys ... "well the 3DL's a furling sail -- just can't reef it like a dacron."

My standard sail set for off shore NPT for 15 years was a full battened heavy main and heavy #2 ... that and a couple of death wish crew guys 10 years younger than me. We didn't race -- we went for the adrenaline rush.

#2 goes on main track no problem.

Final advice: If you don't plan on having 1200 pounds on the rail ... get a 145% for offshore ... if its a 3DL do light reefing then switch to #3

However in light air you will not be competitive with the 145% as the PHRF corrections don't relate to real world.

The # 2 will not go to the jib tracks, it is a 135%. However you can have a full hoist #3 made which will give you a good bump in size but still fit the jib tracks (class legal is not a full hoist #3).

I have found that if you get the right sail balance the boat is very easy to sail with little helm. My wife has had little trouble sailing it in 20+ when I get the right sails up. We are however pretty whipped if we have to sail more than a few hours because it still takes a lot of main trim and traveler work to keep the boat on its feet in big puffs.

Also I have found that newer sails that have good shape and a well tuned rig make the boat much easier to sail without a lot of helm (unless you are on a tight reach then forget it).

When we go to Buzzards Bay, Nantucket and MV we will sail with a #3 on the furler, if we go to Maine we leave the #2 on. Around Boston we stick with the #2.

Vic- Is your 3DL 155 a Marathon? That delam does not sound good on a newer sail. I have reefed mine in 30+ several times last season on distance races seems ok. I think I will take a closer look at it.

3DL Marathon (Taffetta) Medium #1 with uv cover -- 11 months old -- Nov. 09
[List price $3K+]
This is the Taffetta version touted as the very best fabric for roller furling. at 155% I thought Medium would have done the trick ... Realize that this is 8 months of sailing on this sail.

In defense of North:
1. our season down here is 7 months long.
2. Vee Jay is out average of 2 times a week + regattas

Other considerations:
1. Vee Jay only goes out over 20 for regattas.
2. We roller furl every time we launch spin
3. We spin 95% of the times we go out in practices.

What do you guys think?