Reducing friction always makes life easier
The old saying that ‘if a job is easy, you’ll do it’, is a good one that we have tried to bring to bear at all times when improving our Ovni 435 Pelerin. If the job’s difficult, you’ll delay it until it’s beyond inevitable and then it can become a hardship. And nowhere is that more true than when reefing, especially if you’re alone on watch.
As Delivered
When our boat was delivered some of the deck gear was less than perfect in our view; a simple case in point being the line controls for the roller reefing gear. This had small solid pulley blocks, and was led to the winch via a jammer to secure it (the original lasted a week before the lever broke off!). The friction in the system was such that the line had to be led to a winch every time we needed to reef the yankee (jib topsail), which meant that we lost the ‘feel’ that gives warning of a jam or snarl up at the drum end when the line is handled manually. And once you start cranking away on a big winch it’s easy to make things worse–multiply this x 4 with electric or hydraulic winches. So we shifted the blocks around a bit, replaced the jammer with a more robust model and then went sailing, fully intending to sort it properly when the right idea appeared.
A New Approach
A year later we saw a neat looking system from Harken that not only had low friction roller blocks, but routed the line outside the stanchions, thus removing a common tripping point from the deck. This came as a kit, to which we added an additional two blocks to reduce the angles and get the best possible lead, with the least friction. The final turning block is a ratchet block, which might be okay for smaller boat applications, but we didn’t think was right for a boat of our size, and we’d still have to use the jammer. So we installed a Spinlock clutch into the line just ahead of the ratchet block alongside the cockpit, making for a simple and foolproof system, that has proved itself over the last 2500 miles.
A Great Result
The result is that even with the extra blocks I can reef the Yankee by hand 90% of the time, Lou 75%, and there is no chance of the line slipping through the clutch. It’s made a really useful contribution to sail handling at not excessive cost, which we feel was well worthwhile. And it’s worth mentioning that whilst Spinlock and Harken might not make the cheapest deck equipment, both firms have earned a good name for innovation and gear that does the job, and that has certainly been the case in this application.
The Details
You can click on the slide show to enlarge it so you can really see the details of our gear. Use the buttons at the bottom to move through the show (it does not advance automatically).
Chris March 4, 2011 at 10:40 am
Colin, Nice set up. I just ordered a few of the Harken “outside” blocks based on your post.
One additional thing we did was go to very low-stretch furling line. (We waited for the annual line sale.) We did this because of a couple of situations over the years where a reef with a lot of wind pressure in the sail resulted in a line lock on the drum that required a trip forward to clear.
The other thing we did was use line which has the same UV protection in the core as the sheath. We removed the sheath back to just ahead of the location of your spin lock. This loads the drum with smaller diameter line which also reduces the line lock problem. 92% of the line strength is in the core.
Chris
Colin Speedie March 7, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Hi Chris
I, too, have had the occasional snarl up in a drum under heavy tension and snatch loads in bad weather – a royal pain, and one reason why I prefer open drum rollers where it is easier to get at the line. So I’m very intrigued with your idea, which makes a lot of sense to me, and is something we’ll definitely look into when the times comes to replace the line – thanks!
Best wishes
Colin
Chris March 7, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Colin, if you give this a try, I should add we put chafe protection tape around the unsheathed line where it lingers in the stanchion fairleads and turning block forward. Chris
Ben March 5, 2011 at 7:55 am
This looks like a very tidy solution. Thanks for sharing it with us. I punched a stauchion base through the deck once because the furling line turning block was mounted onto it… The base was very dodgy anyway, but as it was over my bunk everything got very wet.
Your stanchion base looks really solid. But just thought I better mention it in case anyone with an old fiberglass boat tries it…
On Snow Petrel I run my furling line over the cabintop, and onto a winch beside the companion way, a more direct lead on Snowpetrel and no need for a turning block, and someone can winch it in without leaving the companionway! But I could probably still reduce the friction even further by getting some good roller bearing blocks.
Hi Chris, the line stowage on the drum has been a big problem for me in the past as well, but now I have a huge alloy drum, that can take all the 10mm rope I want, less stretch, nice to handle and strong… Also the big drum means less effort to roll up the sail, and less tangles. It does look a bit chunky but this suits Snow Petrel.
I normally quickly run off, blanket the headsail behind the main (still sheeted in) and roll up a chunk of sail by hand; it’s quick and low stress, and requires no winching of furling lines or sheets. Curious to know how most of you reef the headsail? Do you let it flog, winch it or blanket it?
For more info see http://snowpetrelsailing.blogspot.com/2011/02/roller-reefing-and-misguided-mascochism.html
Colin Speedie March 7, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Hi Ben
Fortunately for us everything is welded and double-tough!
Good roller blocks always help, and I’m definitely with you on having a large diameter roller drum – makes a lot of sense.
We follow the same drill you describe when reefing, except in light winds, or when there is no room to bear away – we always try to avoid the sail flogging, which puts a lot of strain on the gear, and is hardly likely to prolong the life of the (expensive) sail.
Best wishes
Colin
Chris March 5, 2011 at 10:38 am
Ben, for us, it’s one of those “it depends” answers. We prefer not to let sails flog unless the boat is at risk if we don’t. With the jib, a little bit of wind pressure in the sail also allows for a tight furl. If we have to use the winch, one of us keeps an eye on the furling drum to make sure it turns as the winch does. We’ve seen forestay tangs bent and lower furling units damaged from cranking a jammed unit. With the inner staysail, we decided against furling for now.
Richard March 5, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Big question:
How much did you spend on this Harken upgrade to your vessel?
Thanks,
Richard
Colin Speedie March 7, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Hi Richard
We bought the kit a couple of years ago, and it probably cost us around US$400 total. If we had fitted it from new of course we’d have saved the cost of the original kit, but that wasn’t an option at the time. But for the big improvement it has made for short handed sailing it was money well spent, we feel.
Kind regards
Colin