Sail which can be rolled-up or reefed

Details Sail which can be rolled-up or reefed Sail which can be rolled-up or reefed

1995-01-13

1998-08-04

Basinger, Sherman

Ships

Sail or control means therefor

Reefing and furling

114104, B63H 910

Patent

active

057878315

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention deals with a sail, in particular a foresail, which can be rolled-up and reefed. It is known to provide sails with rolling-up and reefing arrangements, in order to either be able to furl or take-in the sails or to reduce their area, depending upon the wind conditions.
A problem involving rolling installations, in particular of foresails, consists in that, when rolling up the sail, the leech and the foot of the foresail, for instance of a genoa jib, wrap themselves tightly around the forestay while the surface of the sail, which is becoming increasingly smaller, assumes increasingly a baggy aspect, so that possibly under wind pressure a wildly whipping piece of sail remains in the upper third of the forestay region. An arrangement is known from DE-A-42 35 202 which enables to wrap the sail around one of its ropes, for which purpose a rod-shaped wrapping or windup traverse extending from rope to rope is provided.
An improved reel or pulley arrangement is described in the publication Yacht Aug. 1993, where the wire in the fore rope is reversed in the top and runs into a rocker in the reel arrangement below, wherein a stiffening batten is slipped in between the two wire guides in order to enable here a stiffer and larger surface roll-up or reeling region.
It is disadvantageous in the known solution, apart from the certainly improved reefing properties, that a foresail rolled-out up in such a way cannot be stricken-off or taken-in.
The object of the invention is to provide means which improves the reefing properties of the sail as well as largely simplifying the roll-out and take-in possibilities of the sail.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This object of the invention is achieved by providing in a sail of the previously described type an inflatable luff chamber forming the reeling-or reefing-axis.
The invention achieves a multitude of advantages:
Thus, an inflatable luff chamber provides an optimum assist when reefing the sail, since it can serve as a roll-up axis with an appropriate radius, making the roll-up process easier. On the other hand, the inflatable luff chamber enables also an easy unrolling or rolling-up of the sail, for instance, if it has to be taken up since stiffening battens, as provided in the state of the art described above, can be completely done without. Also, the rolling reefing tubes provided in other rolling reefing installations need not be used here.
Another advantage of the invention consists in that it permits to replace the sails at any time, whereas conventional roll-up sails can be unfolded and taken-up only in calm, wind-free weather, in particular, they cannot be replaced during a storm, which the invention permits to do without any problems whatsoever. If several rollable sails exist on a boat, they hamper the sailing -in- the wind properties of the boat, which is not the case when using the sail according to the present invention.
For the rest of it, it is achieved by the invention that the sails are no longer exposed to wind, weather and storm, as is usual with roll-up sails, so that they do not wear as rapidly as before. Accidents due to ruffling or sweeping-out of rolled sails, for instance, in port, if a crew is not longer on board, are also avoided by the sail of the present invention.
Viewed by themselves, sails with air chambers, especially for improving the approach flow profile, are known, for instance, from the DE-A-32 11 641 or the DE-U-83 22 949. An inflatable sail configured overall as a hollow profile is shown in the DE-U-79 00 123 or the De-U-86 24 010. References or suggestions directed to facilitating or assisting the reefing or unrolling of the sails cannot be discerned from these known documents.
It is provided in a particular embodiment of the invention that a luff has a conicity changing up to the edge regions and extending across its length.
Additional advantages can be obtained by pre-profiling the luff chamber. Thus, it is possible, depending upon the type of the sail, to maintain the desired pre-profiling when re

REFERENCES:
patent: 2107303 (1938-02-01), Ljungstrom
patent: 3298346 (1967-01-01), Cochran
patent: 3310018 (1967-03-01), Roberts, Jr. et al.
patent: 3391668 (1968-07-01), Birchill
patent: 4741282 (1988-05-01), Duke
patent: 4753186 (1988-06-01), Paras

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