How does a furling jib work

Both sizes use Top swivel part no The jib requires a fixed wire luff and two attachment points at the bow, one for the forestay and one for the furling drum, separated enough that they do not touch. Attach the furling drum to the attachment point and then attach the jib tack to the top plate on the furling drum, attach the head of the sail into the top swivel forks and then attach the halyard to the top swivel with a shackle.

Hoist the sail and tension the luff. When the sail is being furled, the sail head will rotate and may come into contact with the forestay if too close, to prevent this from happening a round thin Perspex or any other Non corroding material spacer disc can be inserted between the swivel and the shackle, this will prevent the two coming into contact.

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The disadvantages however, are fairly substantial; the inability to reef, the inability to furl when the halyard is fully loaded, and the huge amounts of headstay sag. It has an internal halyard that slides down one groove of the system, while the luff of the sail slides up the second groove. The advantages of this style of system is typically lower cost, no head swivel — no potential halyard wrap problems, keeps halyard free for cruising spinnaker.

The disadvantages are difficult to change halyard tension for sailshape control while sailing, compression load on extrusions can make furling difficult in high load situations, and it is difficult to change sails. The furling line must be released to allow the sail to unroll, but keep tension on it as the jib comes out to prevent snarling the line on the drum.

The furling line should wrap neatly around the drum as the sail comes out, making it easier to pull the line later to roll the sail back up. As you continue to pull out the jib with the jibsheet, enough of the sail will soon be exposed to catch the wind. Be sure to keep tension on the furling line to prevent the jib from rushing out all at once and flailing in the wind. Also, keep tension on the jibsheet so that the sail keeps better shape.

Usually, it is necessary to put the jibsheet on a winch, once the sail catches the wind, and to start cranking the winch to bring in the sheet as the sail unfurls. Ideally, try to keep the jib in trim for your point of sail as it unrolls. When the jib is all the way out, cleat the furling line and trim the jib using its telltales.

In windy conditions, you may not want the jib fully unrolled. You can reef the jib by leaving a few wraps of the jib still furled. On most sailboats with a furling jib, the jib sheet comes back to a moveable block mounted on the deck, as in this photo. This block can be moved forward or aft for optimum sail shape with different amounts of sail unfurled. Moving the block forward pulls the clew downward more than back, tightening the sail's leech more than the foot.

Moving the block aft pulls the clew back more than down, tightening the sail's foot more than the leach. Find the ideal position by watching the jib telltales at the top and the bottom of the luff in order to have both the top and the bottom of the sail in trim.