reefing with Hood furler

[Mark G]

My continuous line Hood furler on my 1991 tall rig has a tendency to slip when my head sail is partially furled. I was able to counteract this in heavy air by cleating the end that pays out the sail and then pulling very hard and cleating the "loose" end separately. This worked but was a bit difficult.

I've thought about putting a 4" ring eight inches or so off the drum to more effectively keep the line wrapped on the drum. The line does feed out at 90 degrees as specified in the manual but the first feeding blocks are at the far post of the bow rail.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Ron Hill]

Mark : If you don't like the cleat, you might do what a number of us have done - change out the bottom section to a Hood drum drive.

Also, to make your head sail truly reefable you have to move the genoa car forward so you get more of a downward pull on the sheet line.  In that light get the Garhauer movable (from the cockpit) genoa car system.  Save much frustration in getting that car in the correct place while the sail is under load.  Make sure that you let Garhauer know that you have a C34 and whether the genoa car track is recessed into the deck or flat on the top.  
It was about 1991 when they stopped recessing that track on C34's!!

[Ted Pounds]

Mark,

You do have to cleat both ends of the line to get it to hold a reef.  I just pull both ends tight at once and cleat them together.  It works like a champ on my boat.  In fact I just did it Thursday in 30+ knots of wind.

[Mark G]

Ted, I was sailing out of Milwaukee with winds in the high 20s yesterday. When I cleated both together, I found that there was enough slippage to cause the non-loaded end to gain a tiny bit of slack with each tack. Eventually, it would loosen enough on the drum to slip. It worked when I cleated the loaded end first while holding tension on the other end and then cleated the second end after putting a lot of force on it.

I thought there might have been some tip I've been missing.

By the way, the boat sailed great on a partially furled 150 with gusts up to 30. Tall rig, wing keel.

[Ted Pounds]

Mark,

Milwaukee was where I was sailing on Thurs.   We spent the night at McKinley and then raced in the Queen's Cup on Fri/Sat.     We had a good race until we ran out of wind 6 miles from the finish.     Where do you keep your boat?

[Ken Juul]

On my 90 with the double line system, the aft mooring cleat and the furling cleat are about 6" from each other.  When reefing in heavy air I put one line around the mooring cleat and one line on the furling cleat to ensure both lines stay tight.

[John Gardner]

I wonder whether line size is a part of the issue.  I can't remember what the specified range of sizes is, but it would seem that the largest acceptable size would sit on the drum at a larger radius and therefore have greater power.  It might also "bite" better between the drum flanges.

[Ron Hill]

Guys : John has a point on line size.  When I re did my 915 Hood line drive, I used 7/16" line.  
Again that splice is not the easiest to make (many previous posts on this topic).  

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

In the manual, Hood calls for 7/16. When I recently had mine replaced, the rigger took it upon himself to use 9/16 but it created so much resistance and binding that I made him change it to 7/16 and things have been working fine since then.

Mike

[Ron Hill]

Mike : I'm NOT SUPPRISED!!   

[Tom Glennon]

On my boat, the first set of double rollers coming off the furler is located on deck, just behind and to the right of the anchor well door, then the line goes to the stanchion blocks. ('87 vintage)