- [Narrator] Welcome to the "Inspire and Learn" series.
We are TMG, a multi-award winning dealership in Australia
specialising in catamarans.
Join us as our expert team
teach you all about anchoring, docking, rigging,
sail trim, maintenance, and so much more,
so you can build confidence
in your catamaran handling ability.
In this episode, we are going back to basics
to learn how to unfurl your jib, or genoa.
- Hello, and welcome back
to another "Inspire and Learn" episode with TMG.
My name is Joe Fox.
Today, we're looking at unfurling your jib, or your genoa,
on the front half, or the bow half, of your boat.
In a previous video,
we have just looked at hoisting the mainsail.
So that is up. You might see that behind me.
If you would like to see that video,
do check the link below.
We're gonna talk through some of the basics
for unfurling your jib in a safe and orderly manner.
Number of things you need to consider
when unfurling your jib
is wind direction.
The wind today is about eight knots from the southeast.
So it's really quite benign conditions,
but perfect for demonstrating this.
Now, unlike hoisting the mainsail,
we do not want the boat to be head to wind
when we're unfurling the jib.
This is because if the boat is head to wind,
the jib or the genoa will become a flag, essentially.
There's a block, there's a bit of hardware on that cornr
that will flap around.
We want to avoid that.
So the best wind angle to hoist the jib
is kind of 90 degrees on the beam.
So if I'm facing forward, (hand slapping shoulder)
the wind is just coming over my shoulder now.
So when I unfurl the jib,
it'll come out nicely down my port side,
full of wind and not flapping around at all.
There are a couple of lines
that we're going to use to control
the furling and unfurling process on the jib.
Number one is the furling line.
This again, varies from boat to boat.
On the Lagoon 42, it's this gray line
that runs down the port side of the boat.
It's on a locking system here.
So what we want to do,
is we want to release that, so it's free to run.
I'll also just run this furling line through my hands once,
just to make sure there arent any knots or turns in it
that are gonna get caught up in this block when we unfurl.
Now, if you come with me, I'll show you what this line does,
because it has a very important role in this whole process
that we're going to look at.
So we trace this line all the way forward.
We see it running through fairleads,
around a turning block on the port bow,
and then it runs over to this furling drum here.
Now, this is a Facnor furling drum.
And as the sail comes out,
the drum spools the furling line onto it.
Pre-loading the drum, essentially,
so that at the end of the day,
or when we get to where we're going,
when we want to put away the sail, or furl it,
we pull on this line
and it has the opposite effect on the sail,
wrapping it around the forestay.
We need to jump up on the bow now.
This yacht here has a self-tacking headsail system
which is very easy to use,
makes sailing incredibly simple.
Now, not all catamarans have that.
Some catamarans have two sheets,
because the sail is an overlapper,
so it overlaps the mast.
So you can't have it on a sliding track,
but we're lucky enough to have that.
There is a locking mechanism on there,
just to hold the slide in the middle.
What I'll do, I'll undo the locks on either side,
just so that when we're tacking and gybing
later on in the day,
we'll be able to do that with no problem.
Now, in order to pull the sail out, to unfurl the sail,
we're going to use the jib sheet.
And as you just saw, this is on the self-tacker.
So we're loading this one jib sheet onto the winch,
and we're set to go.
Now, as I pull out the sail,
I'm going to take the furling sheet in one hand,
and this just controls the speed.
It means, as the furling line is going out,
pulling through my hand, I can control that.
If it is windy, you will need to use gloves for this.
If it is very windy,
you can even wrap this once around a winch,
be it down here or up there at the helm station,
just to slow the sail down,
to stop it coming out too quickly.
That's a really good use of crew members.
If you have crew on board helping you sail,
get them to help you with that.
So back at the helm station now.
With the electric winch I can pull on the sheet
and ease the furling line out through my hands.
(electric winch grinds) (bright music)
So there we go.
You can see the jib, or the genoa,
unfurled beautifully there,
alongside the main, which we've covered in a previous video.
So if you'd like to learn about how to trim these two sails
which we have just hoisted,
do click the notification button
to be alerted when we put out the video
on "Sail Trim and Technique: Back to Basics."
My name is Joe Fox.
I do hope you enjoyed this tutorial
on how to unfurl your jib.
Do give us a like, and a subscribe as well
if you'd be updated with more regular content like this.
My name is Joe Fox, from TMG.
Thanks for coming along, and we'll see you soon.
- [Narrator] Join us in the next episode,
where we teach you how to furl your jib, or genoa.
We'll see you then.