05 Oct 22:
Skipper has developed a trick to use the roller furlers on her Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE and O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE as creative reefers, a trick we call roller furfing. For many years launch and recovery from the dock was accomplished with only sail, no motor or oars, a byproduct of the Seagull motor's unreliability. To leave the dock the main sail is made ready and Skipper commands that a small scrap of jib be unfurled, enough to catch the wind and get us gliding away from the dock. How much? A little for a fresh breeze and more in a whisper of wind. Once clear of the dock there is enough power from the jib to turn into the wind, the main is hoisted, we unfurl all of the jib and fall off. Main and jib are trimmed, plus mizzen if we want, and off we go.
The sequence is reversed for landing. The First Mate lowers the main on command, and Skipper uses the First Mate as a voice activated autothrottle to slowly furf the jib. She works the centerboard and rudder for steering and as flat plate brakes when needed. This scrap of jib has little sail shape but the scrap gathers enough wind to put some water flow over the centerboard and rudder. Skipper docks pretty as you please, no drama and no sails flogging the crew or fouling the cockpit. Once at the dock her collateral duty is that of Dock Line Wench, she has a few tricks up her sleeve there also.
One key to Skipper's furfing system is the wire in the luff of the jib, this helps prevent unfurling of the head of the jib in high winds. ONKAHYE came equipped with the luff wire, Rick Zern and Hunter RIddle converted the luff on CYANE's jib. The tack furler drum, luff wire and head swivel combine to become the forestay of the sail rig. We are not sure what brand of furler system is on the Drascombe, but we put a Harken Small Boat Furler on the Day Sailer. Harken will tell you that the Small Boat Furler can not be used to reef, but they have never met Skipper...or serial circumnavigator Webb Chiles for that matter. Webb passed along to us that he used the furler on his Lugger CHDIOCK TICHBORNE in the same way as Skipper, taking advantage of a small bit of jib in light wind conditions to dock. Webb writes "Audrey no doubt knew this because it came in her genes. I had to figure it out for myself." At sea CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE's jib was all in or all out, never partially reefed in heavy weather, and by "at sea" we mean across Oceans...Pacific...Indian...and a chunk of the Atlantic.
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| Webb and CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE (Image: http://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/chidiock.html) |
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| 1980 Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE |
Skipper and Webb are creative thinkers, using a system for something other than the singular purpose for which it was developed by the design engineers. This creativity is also something that U.S. Marines are known for, I've always said that if you want to figure out how many different ways to misuse something for other than its intended purpose, give it to a Marine.
