Height of Genoa on Roller Furler

[Tom Foley]

My genoa is about a foot shorter than my roller furler on my CD25. Do I pull the genoa all the way up the furler and add a foot of line or do I attach the genoa at deck level and have it a foot lower at the mast head? Or half way in between?
Thanks
Tom Foley
CD25 "Heather"
Kennebunkport

[Steve Kuhar]

Tom,

I am new to furling headsails, so hopefully someone with more experience will correct or confirm what I say. I think that you should use a tack pendant to get your sail as high as possible on the foil. If you do not have a halyard restraint on the mast you will be inviting a halyard wrap by putting the pendant at the head. You will also gain a little more visibility forward by raising the sail.

Steve Kuhar

[Carter Brey]

I think it makes no difference whether the pendant is at the foot or head of the sail; either way the effect is to raise the upper swivel of the furler, which is where the halyard is attached on most units. The higher the attachment point for the halyard, the more likely it is that the necessary angle (5-10 degrees) will be obtained between the halyard and the headstay in order to avoid a wrap.

It's true that putting the pendant at the tack will improve visibility by raising the sail.

Carter

[Mike Raehl]

Tom,
Scroll to the bottom of this Harken furler link for a picture of a pendant at the top of the genoa sail

http://www.harken.com/pdf/NautorFurlingC7475-C7550.pdf

My furler instructions (not a Harken) are very specific that the upper swivel must be raised to one inch below the top of the furler foil to avoid halyard wrap and also the halyard should be at a seven to ten degree angle to the forestay. To achieve these conditions, I installed a halyard restrainer on the mast and a pendant at the top of the genoa. Since my genoa is 135% high cut, I also have a pendant at the genoa tack which sets the sail about fourteen inches above the deck for improved visibility.

Determining the top pendant length was a trial and error process using a short piece of low stretch line as a temp pendant, adjusting the jib halyard tension and then observing the results with my binoculars.

There is a post on this subject that I started a few weeks ago.

Remember that setting the jib higher off the deck increases the heeling moment so there is a trade off between increased visibility and increased healing moment.

[Cathy Monaghan]

Your halyard should not run parallel with the headstay otherwise it will wrap around the extrusion when you furl the sail and the shackle will damage the extrusion. If, with the headsail tacked at the furling drum, the halyard runs parallel with the headstay, then you need to add a tack pendant. The other option is to add a pendant at the head of the sail but you'll also need to install a halyard restrainer.


Fair winds,
Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay