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Cruising Corner
By: Austin Powers | March 2019
Contrary to a normal mainsail, when deploying and furling an In mast mainsail its easier to have the sail starting to fill with wind as opposed to being directly into the wind.
Unfurling procedure
  1. Place the boat onto a close hauled course with the mainsheet eased slightly.
  2. Place outhaul on one winch while having furling line wrapped on seperate winch
  3. Crank outhaul whilst keeping tension in furling line to desired sail area
  4. Always look up!! Never take your eye off of the sail and if things feel tougher than they should, STOP!
Furling Procedure
  1. Place the boat on a course in which the mainsail is filled with air. Preferably a reach or Close hauled. This is contrary to heading into the wind when dropping a traditional mainsail.
  2. Place furling line on active winch and outhaul on non active winch
  3. Reverse the unfurling procedure by winding in furling line whilst keeping tension in outhaul line. By keeping the sail filled it helps get a much tighter roll.
  4. In the image, it shows half of a wrap around the winch to control the furl. In lighter airs this is fine, however as the wind increases more wraps may be required to keep the sail under control.
  5. Furl all of the way until the Sun cover is only showing with no Sail cloth peaking through. (We see this a lot with sun damaged sails from a partially furled mainsail)
Austin Powers
Sail Designer & New Sail Consultant
804.776.6151 | 804.894.1522
Apowers@ullmansails.com
Tips for Storing your In mast furling sail:
  • Try and take off the sail and store in bag whenever you are not using the boat for a longer period of time. Sunlight can get into the slot on the mast and burn the leech of the sail. This is like leaving your Genoa up with no suncover.
  • Have your sailmaker add a light uv belt to your next mainsail to help protect against UV
  • If big winds are expected furl in the clew of the sail as much as possible to reduce windage
  • When the sail is removed, tie your outhaul to your halyard to help prevent the foil from banging inside the mast
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