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SC19: Self-tacking jib + furler?

Posted: October 1st, 2019, 5:47 pm
by Jonathan Levine
Don't actually have the boat yet - having a rough time getting it out of New York and on the road west. Maybe as far as Madison next week, but I'm beginning to resign myself to waiting for spring.

In the meantime...

I was looking through some old Aquarius stuff online (courtesy the wayback machine) and the "options" section states that on the SC19XL the self-tacking jib is "not available with roller furling". My experience with self-tackers is limited, so maybe this is a dumb question, but why is this an unsupported combination? Fwiw, the boat I have coming is an '83 BW non-XL (afaIk at this point).

Re: SC19: Self-tacking jib + furler?

Posted: October 2nd, 2019, 7:55 am
by Matt Haberman
Jonathan,

There are two issues that prevent the roller furling on a self tacking jib setup:
1) We use a full length battens in the self tacking jib which prevents rolling. We have found this was necessary to maintain a good sail shape.
2) The tack of the jib attaches below the apex of the bridle wires where the roller furling drum is affixed to the forestay. Because of this configuration it is not possible to roll the jib.

Re: SC19: Self-tacking jib + furler?

Posted: October 2nd, 2019, 10:01 am
by Jonathan Levine
Thanks, Matt. I get it (from the manual the '83 stock (furling?) jib looks like the zippered-luff halyard setup I'm familiar with from the H18), though I can't quite visualize how the self-tacking jib is affixed below the bridle - if anyone happens to have a picture handy it would help.

So would I guess correctly that this means two different jibs as well (rather than the same sail with or without battens)?

And just out of curiosity, can you estimate what percentage of owners choose each? Seems like a real performance vs. convenience choice, and I can't imagine many sailors having both and changing their standing rigging (?) depending on which version they want to use on a given day.

Re: SC19: Self-tacking jib + furler?

Posted: October 2nd, 2019, 4:24 pm
by Matt Haberman
Jonathan,
Go to our website and look at the pictures of the ARC22, 21 & 17, all of those should be self tacking.

They are not the same sails, the roller furling jib is a traditional overlapping jib where as the self tacking jib does not overlap and passes in front of the mast.

Since we introduced self tacking in the early 90's the majority of boats shipped with the self tacking.