| Submitted
on July 15, 2004 by Gary Souza
Question: Hi
Is there a basic rule as far as the maximum I can roll up my 135
Headsail and still have some sort of "workable" shape?
There is no foam/rope in the luff. It seems that I read some where
in your column about 1/3 or 1/4 the length of the foot, but I couldn't
find it anywhere.
Thanks,
Gary |
| Answer:
Hi Gary,
With a well designed roller reefing pad you can roll up the sail
15-20% and the sail will still perform reasonably well, although
it might not look perfectly smooth.
With no reefing pad, it is fair to say that with every wrap the
sail shape and sail performance will get worse. You will be sailing
with a big bubble of backwind in the luff of the sail. If you can
live with the bubble and the creases along the luff, the next limiting
factor is the length of your jib track. As the sail is roller reefed,
you need to move the jib lead forward so the angle of the jib sheet
is aiming towards a spot at about 50% of the luff of the rolled
sail. At some point you will roll the sail enough that the clew
will be too far forward relative to the forward end of the track.
Then you will have the big bubble in the luff, and the top of the
sails leech will be lazy because the jib sheet is aiming too much
along the foot, and not enough toward the head.
If you find your self in so much wind that rolling the sail past
the front of the track is necessary, you should try rolling the
sail almost all the way, leaving just a small triangle of fabric
unrolled. Even a triangle of 20 or 30 square feet (4-5' of foot
length showing, 6-8' of leech length showing) will be enough to
help you steer the boat when sailing or motorsail to windward in
extreme conditions.
Regards,
Dan Neri
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