Chrysler Sailors Forum

Hi everyone,

I am making a serious attempt at building my own furling system for my C22. I am following a template from this site:

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/12/howto/furler/

Here are some photos of the drum thus far:




I am wondering if anyone has had any experience making one of these before. I have been looking for further instructions on using 1/2" PVC on the forestay with my sail's hanks going through the PVC (hanking to the forestay) at coupling joints in the 1/2" PVC.

Would anyone have any tips on completing this project?

Regards,

Thank you for the great info, by fare the best I have seen. An welcome aboard on this forum.

WOW!
Does THAT look cool!

If I did not already have a furler for Lady Jo, I'd be buying parts tonight!

For those who really wonder if they need a furler. The answer is simply no.
However . . . . You might really want one if you've ever sailed a boat with one!

There is really nothing like staying in the cockpit and simply putting the jib away! Pull the furl line, keep light tension on the sheets and GONE! the sail is all rolled up! No need to go on the bow, no bungees to strap the sail to the deck, NADA!

Makes life easy! Not the best choice for a race boat but for ease and comfort, I'm all in!

Scott

Thank you for compliments.

I'm still stuck on the question of whether to go with the genoa or full working jib though. I'm doing lots of reading on the pros and cons...genoa being not so good with the shape as it's reefed and maybe the jib a little less impacted. The idea is to work with something in the realm of 30% furling on the sail. I'm doing the math on a 150% genoa versus a 100% working jib.

On another note, I'm trying to figure out how many wraps each of the sails are going to take and if the furling drum will be able to take them all. Little bit of estimation.

One problem at a time. I will post pictures when I get the chance.

I shall be lurking nearby, awaiting the the outcome. A roller furler is a great tool. I only have a working jib. The so-called genoa that came with the boat is realy nothing more than an old rat-chewed mainsail that someone cut down and tried to use. Garbage.

I'm in the market for a decent genny.

Most of the DIY systems I've looked into have been used on 15-17' boats with very small jibs, and they are not billed as reefing systems. The big problem is the lack of a proper, stiff luff foil that will take the rotational input at the base and transmit it to the head of the unit. Given that the foil on a C22 would be about 25', that is asking a lot of an assembly of PVC pipe when the wind hits 15-20mph. Because there is no foil, the DIY systems use standard jib hanks attached to the forestay through slots in the PVC "foil", further weakening it and adding a lot of friction. Even the standard jib on the C22 is bigger than the main, and the force it can transfer deserves a fair amount of respect. If a DIY system fails, you probably won't be able to furl the sail, and there is no way to take it down.

windnutlarry makes some very good points...the convenience of a furler is nice but the danger of not being able to lower the sail is a very real concern...

I would go with a inch and a quarter heavy wall PVC cut into 4 foot links joined by couplings just screwed in place so that you can take it apart. The couplings would add support to the PVC. You will be pushing the sail up while you add the for foot links of PVC. I have not tried to make a roller furler so do use caution

Please excuse my ignorance, for there is a cure: Knowledge, which I seek on this subject.

May I posit the idea of simply using a high quality black commercial water hose as the roller part. Since the forestay is the skeleton, the roller can be anything that is strong enough to bear the twisting at the hanks, right?

PVC fittings from Plumbing Supply, Inc might be able to be used to join the hose to the spool and swivel. That stuff, when threaded into a hose, is very hard to dislodge without a wrench, which applies hundreds of pounds of torque. I doubt the wind would match that.

...let the stoning begin...

Nice John, I seen a post were a guy used cable ties to hold the hanks to the foil.

Chrysler20%26 wrote:Nice John, I seen a post were a guy used cable ties to hold the hanks to the foil.

I'm just trying to imagineer something that is one-piece (except for the ends), very tough, extremely weather resistant, and takes into consideration the wise caution from Windnutlarry.

I haven't a clue whether such an idea would work.

welcome windnutlarry !!!

I ave been wondering about a fuller myself and I am a hopeless DIY'er so thanks, looks cool...

Several people on the ask a McGregor owner forum have made PVC furlers and use them successfully. Some of the people have posted detailed pics to show their work. Most of them used 1/2" PVC pipe and put couplings at each hank point. Then they removed the piston hanks , drilled the couplings and TY Wraped the sail to the furler through the couplings. As mentioned above, the forestay is the skelton passing through the PVC pipe-coupling assembly. The drum assembly on Duckworks looks good but are they black iron pipe flanges and nipple?
Clair

I had one on my Newport Holiday but when I got the C 26 I modified it and worked for the most part and on the smaller boat it did not work with the pvc cut for hanks and hanks wanted to poke through the sail so I went with solid pvc and zip tied to furler. Longer luff on the 26 kept breaking the pvc so I bought one.