Jib Roller Furler-Reefing (Furfing)

 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.

Webb and CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE
(Image: http://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/chidiock.html)

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.

Log of ONKAHYE.

Log of CYANE.

Webb Chiles In The Present Sea.

1971 O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE 15 May 19 Centerboard Uphaul Cleat and Rigging

15 May 19:

The centerboard uphaul cleat on CYANE was loose and too small. We replaced it with a cam cleat. Drilled a small pilot hole and installed with marine grade stainless screws.

While we had the tools out we replaced a worn cleat that is used for the roller furling line.

We changed the main sail from the small Petrel main back to the Day Sailer main, then rigged the boat so we could take some photos for an article in Small Boats Monthly.

She launched easily from her trailer.

Skipper snapped some photos. We love how the Day Sailer can glide right up onto the beach.

Sail number 4624. 1971, one of the first DS IIs.

Mast tabernacle.

Our boat was converted over to roller furling. We left the jib halyard block and also added a halyard for a spinnaker.

Spinnaker pole block.

Attachment point for spinnaker pole.

Spreaders.

Roller furling drum.

Furling line routed through fairleads back to the cockpit cleat.

Beach life.

Back on the lift to watch the moon rise.

Log of CYANE.

1980 Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE Trail, Launch, Jib Furler and Motor Shim

09 Feb 19:

Here's a few videos we shot last year to show how we trail the Lugger, set up the Lugger for launching, and how we shimmed the motor.







Road Ready:



Motor Shim:



Roller Furling:



Log of ONKAHYE.

1980 Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE 19 Jan 18 Roller Furler Cotter Pin

19 Jan 18:

Our Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE has a roller furling jib, the jibstay is attached to the furler drum with a cotter pin and small cotter ring.

The cotter ring is very small and hard to manipulate, so we'll see if we can undo the shackle at the tack grommet vs the cotter ring. (In breaking news, the Skipper has been wanting to do it that way for years but had other folks going down other rigging paths). The tack shackle is there because the newer jib grommet on the Bartlett sail was a bit oversize to fit directly into the top of the furler drum. If the upper shackle path doesn't work, we are going to try a different size cotter ring or U shackle to see if we can make rigging the jibstay a little easier. All that said, some folks take the entire furler drum assembly loose when the boat is downrigged so that the furler is not left on the stem, to reduce UV damage or potential for sticky fingers. We don't because we store the boat in the garage and it is one less step to rig the furler line.

Here are some candidates for replacement parts. This also denotes the part size if anyone needs to order a replacement, 3/16th inch diameter by 3/4 inches long barrel.

We'll report the results! (Edit: The results are in. The U shackle was not a good idea, there was one more part to keep track of and it was hard to thread the pin through the shackle, then the furler tang, then the jibstay shackle, then the furler tang again and finally into the U shackle. So we'll scrap that and go back to the cotter pin, but add a bigger cotter ring, and next time try undoing the shackle on the end of the jibstay).

Log of ONKAHYE.

Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE 12 JAN 18 Ramp Ready

12 Jan 18:

Rigged the boat to show what gear is on board and other notes about when we launch. But first we addressed a common problem, sometimes the stay swage eyes get flipped over the tang on the mast eye and we don't notice it until the mast is up. Then the mast comes back down.

We are going to try a 3mm keeper line to keep the swage eyes in the right spot.

First up is a glamor shot video without sailing gear, and sails set to point out a few things. We always check the sails on the trailer to ensure they deploy correctly when we leave the dock.



A roller furling jib comes in handy to get to and from the ramp.



Next up a video showing where the gear is stowed and sails ready for slipping off the trailer at the ramp.



Our Suzuki 6 outboard (kind of) needed to be shimmed so that it could be tilted all the way to the top latch notch. We added a shim under the top aft of the mount feet to tilt the mount back about 3/8th inch. We also added a 1/8th inch wear pad under the aft mount feet and another wear strip under the lock screws.



Log of ONKAHYE.