roller furl or hank on jib?

[kjacobsen]

I've used hank-on jibs on all the boats I've owned because the sail always seems to set better than roller furling. However, I am now considering installing a RF jib with a FURLEX furler on my IF, for convenience in single handed sailing. Here are my questions:

Do IF owners usually sail with the working jib or with the genoa (when not racing)?

Will a RF genoa significantly reduce upwind performance when partially reefed?

I would appreciate any comments from owners

Thanks/Tak

K. Jacobsen
Charleston, South Carolina, USA

[maja]

In general the sail itself should not be of worse performance just because of the furling arrangement. However, when reefing by partially furling of the foresail on the forestay, the performance will suffer considerably, especially on a tack.

The other thing wchich will have some influence is that the sail will be smaller and because the foot of the sail will not be so close to the deck because of the drum. Lifelines mounted high on the sides of the fore deck will have the same effect on the genoa or make it impossible for the genoa to be sheeted properly.

The IF-boat Class rules do not allow forestay profile, but only hank-on foresails. There are furling arrangement solutions for this also. See http://www.classic-yacht.dk/ and http://www.bartelsgmbh.de/ . Those solutions also allow the mounting of the drum underneath the deck in order to gain better racing performance.

Partilally reefing of a hank-on sail by fuling is not recommended, as the hanks will wear the foresail near the luff and maybe destroy it. It is only for furling in and out of the entire sail.

The working jib (102 % of LP) is a rather small sail and will have its best performance in wind speed above 20 knots. An alternative is the new 110 % jib, which gill give you much better all-roud performance, in fact without need of forsail reefing or change. However this sail (and preferrably also the working jib) shall be equipped with battens, so it cannot be furled. But you may perhaps make some downhaul arrangement in order to make it possible to lower the sail without climbing the foredeck.