My wife recently gave me the jib roller furling hardware for my birthday. I'm wondering if the two small battons (maybe a foot long) located at the leech of the jib sail, will be a problem. They are parrell to the ground/water and I'm assuming that when I try to furl the sail, these battens will end of sticking out. I'm curious as to how other Nacra 6.0 owners have dealt with this.

I assume the battens are the same as those on a Prindle 18. On my jib, I removed the pockets and sewed them back on at a 45 degree angle. I know others who have used this same method with good success. (HobieGary on his Mystere 6.0, for one). The jib rolls up easily after this and it doesn't seem to effect performance.
Here's a photo

Jack Hoying
Fort Loramie, Ohio
Prindle 18 #1645
http://www.bright.net/~jmhoying/sailing/prindle.htm

Yes, the battens will cause the sail to not roll up cleanly and will eventually do damage to the pockets and maybe the sail. I've switched to vertical battens and have been happy. I don't sail in the 6.0 class though so you may want to check class rules if that is important to you.

Tim Dry
Nacra 6.0 #32
http://www.catamaranracing.org

The stock sail, roller furled, will work, and work well. It's not optimal, but few things are.

The Inter 20 jib battens are already angled, I assumed for this reason, to furl cleaner.

Don't just cut them out! Your leach will flap all the time!

Easiest way-leave them alone. I wouldn't store it furled to the forestay however more than a night!

The angled modification is a good idea also.

I roller furl my jib, with the stock batten set up, it works.

I never had very good luck with a jib furler on the 6.0. I was never happy with the way it furled. When it was realy radical and I wanted to furl it, I never could. I had a jib taylored with the hard battens removed and a series of kevlar strips sewn into the batten pockets. this works OK, the jib does not flog on the luff and it furls much better. This is not class legal but good for distance racing
Secondly, if you have a harken High Load small boat furler, it is not rated for the loads of a 20 foot beach catamaran. I know it is commonly used, but it is marginal. a couple of years ago I sheared the lower furling drum in 1/2 as a result of a pitchpole. It kind of sucked because we were upside down and demasted several miles off the coast. Several of the florida distance racers indicated that they had similar problems. I would admit that when I broke mine, I also broke the bowfoil and bent the mast in the pitchpole, so it was not your average load.

Eric

What are the other 6.0 owners using for roller furling drums if that Harken hi-load is so marginal?

A couple things.When your jib battens are angled the sail will furl better however if your used to rolling your sail up when you take it down the angled battens wont roll up neatly. I used to use a lenght of PVC to roll the jib up on. Now it has to be folded a certian way before it can be rolled.

The tip for furling is to head deep down wind and let the main blanket the jib before furling. Take the load off the jib and it will roll up nicely.

I'm using a furler system off a Hobie 18 on my Mystere 6.0. Almost 2 years of heavy use and no problems.

Mike

I agree that the easiest way to get the jib to furl well is to head downwind. Mainly what this does is reduce the forestay tension which allows the jib to furl properly. the problem is that when you realy need the furler is in 30 + knots and you sure as hell don't want to turn down wind to furl.
Eric

I want to furl just to relax more in between races!

I'm using a harken highload on my h17, and Its deforming the c-clip thats holding the whole kit together. Every so often I have to race off to the hardware store for new SS C-clip to make sure my rig doesn't come tumbling down.

doesn't that c-clip only hold it together when it's not rigged? My Hobie 18 (granted - different drum) below bridle furler has the same problem.

While I will admit that being able to furl the jib between races is nice, I don't think it is worth it. It keeps you from being able to properly control jib downhaul tension which is very important with a large jib. It also puts a bad twist in the leading edge of the jib alot. If you want to sail the boat to its potential, leave the furler at home.

Eric

Eric,
If you haven't furled by the time 30 starts happening then life is what it is on a small boat with a big stick, or you just like the righting drill!

I am using the Harken cruising furler - 2000lbs load capacity and it works great.
http://harkenstore.com/uniface.urd/scpdinw1.ShowProd?B4RPMEB9Y9CLEW

Is anyone using a furler with a continuous line?
Dave