It’s the same everywhere we go. People struggle. But they – and you – don’t have to when you learn how to sail and cruise with the experts.

Ever go fishing?

Ever have the line foul up in the reel?

Yeah ya did. We all did. Inevitable.

Roller furling, the system widely used around the world to deploy and put away headsails (jibs and genoas, the ones in the front), is super simple. But, it’s not easy. And it often tangles up like a fishing reel.

”Let’s go to the video tape!”

-Warner Wolf

• Never underestimate technique and conditioning;
• Never confuse simple with easy.

IN THAT CLIP: I was sitting in Ivar’s on the Seattle waterfront having fish n chips + oatmeal stout, and this was one of the many boats that went by. They sailed in elegantly, then re-appeared going up into the wind trying to roll up their genoa (front sail) to no avail.

It all starts with the installation. That goes wrong most of the time, and then it’s often difficult or impossible to get good results. This goes way beyond tidiness, or level of difficulty. It gets down to safety. If you need to deploy or put away the headsail NOW, and you can’t cuz the f-in furler fouled, your f-d. Straight up.

Let’s break it down a bit.

How does a “furler” work (assuming it is in fact working)?

Instead of raising the sail from the deck when it’s going to be used, and then dropping it when done, this system leaves the sail up for the season. It’s rolled up when not used, and unrolled when deployed. This is much quicker and physically easier.

The sail is opened by pulling the control line, or sheet, until the sail unrolls (usually all the way but sometimes we play with less than a full sail). When done, we pull on the line that wrapped up in the spool below the sail (think fishing reel) when we deployed the sail. Simple!

The tricky bit is getting that line to wrap up snugly without digging into itself and jamming when we deploy the sail. (Again, think fishing reel.)

The sail is hoisted by a normal halyard (hoisting line) that’s attached to a swivel at the top of the sail, with another swivel at the bottom (head and tack, respectively for those who know or want to know the terms). The drum, or spool (fishing reel) sits below that bottom swivel.

These systems are complicated to customize and install in the first place, except for the single most important thing: making sure the angle of attack of the furling line (fishing string) is set to the one, simple, correct angle: perpendicular to the spool. Any slight variation on that causes trouble; any significant variation on that angle ruins it. Yet, rigger after rigger fails at this simple task. It might not be easy to figure out how to get the line to wind up aimed perpendicular to that spool, as boats are proportioned and laid out very differently from each other. But, the song remains the same.:

“Perpendicular if you please, Mr. ____” (Think, The Sea Wolf, The Bounty, The Caine Mutiny, etc).

I’ve rigged a few of these systems over the decades. Never again. I’ve adjusted them on people’s boats, including ones I acquired for the Sailing Center. I’ve even adjusted them on boats we’ve chartered in the Caribbean and Mediterranean so that we’d have no problems on our trips for the Sailing Center. It can be as easy as loosening two bolts, sliding a block (pulley) up or down along the tube it’s attached to, and re-tightening the bolts. Or, not so easy. But it has to be done.

That’s mission critical item #1. There’s an item #2 on the checklist: don’t let the string go loose. If you do that with fishing line, it’s gonna table, and you’re not gonna have a good time. Same with roller furling. If you let the line dance about the deck loose when unrolling the sail, you’re gonna have a bad time furling it back up later.

Solution? Keep tension on the furling line when pulling on the sheet to begin deploying the headsail. When enough is deployed that it wants to continue on its own (assuming enough wind), one allows this by controlling tension on the furling line. Let it win, but grudgingly. It’s no different than easing a sheet (line used to pull a sail in or let it out). You probably can’t safely control it by hand. So, wrap it on a winch, or turn on the ratchet of the fairlead block for the furling line.

Have neither a winch nor a ratcheting block? Fucked. Straight up.

PRO TIPS once you’ve had just enough experience to comprehend my meaning (stolen from some nautical movie):

Have gloves. If the sail starts getting away from you and you reflexively resist, you can get a nasty rope burn.

If the headsail is a wonky unfurling and/or furling, try fully deploying and re-furling a few times with as much tension on the furling line as you can and still get it do do its job. That sometimes also solves for the back corner (clew) of the headsail not completely rolling up on itself.

Or, it makes that part worse, but you at least got the furling line sorted. If the clew isn’t wrapped up a few times around itself before you run out of furling line, easiest quick fix is to untie the sheet, manually roll up the sail, then wrap the sheets around a few times before re-tying (careful to get the direction right). Then, test by unfurling/refurling a few times to sort out the wrinkles literally and figuratively.

It all starts with the fairlead line being ___?____ to the furling drum (spool). If you can fill in that blank, you can probably deal with a furling system. If not, re-read the above. Better yet, make sure your first experiences with one are on OPB’s: Other People’s Boats. Sailing school is best, but any experienced, reputable sailor (have to ask around) should be able to get you started.

Should…

You’re welcome!