Is your displacement or sail particularly large/small which may influence the SWL above or below these average recommendations?.If you have a multihull - go one category up.Identify a suitable SWL range based on your boat size.The following list is roughly in order of importance: This in turn, increases safety factors, reduces ware and ultimately increase the life of your hardware and rigging. ![]() Lowering the overall weight of your boat makes it stiffer and more powerful / responsive but also reduces the overall loads. Saving weight should be on your mind in every hardware and rigging choice made on your boat. This is no less important for cruising boats. However, increasingly customers like the security of using a lock to prevent the accidental unfurl.įinally, having considered all the factors above and you still have some options, weight is always a key decision criterion.Code zero's and gennakers are always either fully furled or fully unfurled and historically people have been content to tie or cleat off the furling line when the sail is furled.Furling drum locks / ratchets are becoming increasingly popular, but they are by no means standard across the manufacturers.the smaller the drum the more power and line speed you need to be able to generate from either your winches or your arms - depending on boat size!) A smaller drum delivers more speed - an essential component to successful top-down furling (N.B.A bigger drum provides more torque / power which will be useful for a heavier, larger code zero.If you have narrowed your selection down to a few possible options, drum diameter is another important consideration.But this flexibility does come at a premium price.īottom Up Furler product overview - photo © KZ Marine Group.However, one good example is KZ Race Furlers from New Zealand where every unit is available with a range of jaw sizes - to allow a smaller SWL unit with a larger than normal jaw width to accommodate the larger thimble.Only a small number of manufacturers appear to have optimised their ranges for the specific needs of top-down furling.This drives bigger thimble widths which often forces you to buy a larger furing unit than is required on pure SWL requirements. However, cable sizes are always bigger in diameter relative to bottom-up cables.Loads are much smaller for top-down furling and therefore you should be able to go down a size. ![]() Despite the obvious choice of whether to go for a dedicated top-down furling unit, Top-down furling has other consequences on unit size.It is by no means guaranteed that this distance is enough to accommodate your thimble/cable. the distance from the pin to the back of the jaw. ![]()
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