I'm new to my Capri and almost new to sailing.
The wind here in Austin's been (uncharacteristically, I'm told) a bit on the strong side for me and my wife (who's completely new to sailing), so I rigged a reef line for the main (the sail already had a reef point) and we went out today in what seemed like a fairly strong breeze (lots of whitecaps). The reefed main worked fantastic, *very* happy about that, but the partially furled jib (AFAIK, we have a factory furler) wasn't so successful.
It seems that when partially furled, the foot of the jib stays neatly rolled, but the top just unwinds due to the swivel up top having no real connection to the foot. The sail gets a goofy shape and just flogs in anything higher than a beam reach.
I figure either I'm doing something wrong, but don't know what it might be, or this furling system doesn't really work in a partial manner.
FWIW, we had the shrouds very lose today. I can't decide which hole to use in the adjustment, #4 seems too tight, #3 seems too loose. Would the lack of tension in the jib luff wire cause what I'm seeing? If so, I'll tighten the rig; I don't see us racing anytime soon.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. At this point, winds like this cause my wife to refuse to use the jib and frequently scream, "we need a bigger boat!"
I'm afraid she's not gonna put up with this much longer.
--jmike
The wind here in Austin's been (uncharacteristically, I'm told) a bit on the strong side for me and my wife (who's completely new to sailing), so I rigged a reef line for the main (the sail already had a reef point) and we went out today in what seemed like a fairly strong breeze (lots of whitecaps). The reefed main worked fantastic, *very* happy about that, but the partially furled jib (AFAIK, we have a factory furler) wasn't so successful.
It seems that when partially furled, the foot of the jib stays neatly rolled, but the top just unwinds due to the swivel up top having no real connection to the foot. The sail gets a goofy shape and just flogs in anything higher than a beam reach.
I figure either I'm doing something wrong, but don't know what it might be, or this furling system doesn't really work in a partial manner.
FWIW, we had the shrouds very lose today. I can't decide which hole to use in the adjustment, #4 seems too tight, #3 seems too loose. Would the lack of tension in the jib luff wire cause what I'm seeing? If so, I'll tighten the rig; I don't see us racing anytime soon.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. At this point, winds like this cause my wife to refuse to use the jib and frequently scream, "we need a bigger boat!"
I'm afraid she's not gonna put up with this much longer.--jmike