Furling refers to stowing a

sail A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may b ...

into a neat package after it has been ed, but leaving it still fastened in the position from which it can be set. For a sail with a boom, this usually means flaking the sail down over the boom and securing it with sail ties. The headsail of a sloop (where

roller furling Roller furling is a method of furling (i.e. reefing) a yacht's staysail by rolling the sail around a stay. Roller furling is typically used for foresails such as jibs or genoas. A mainsail may also be furled by a similar system, whereby the ...

is not fitted) is often lashed to a guardrail or along a bowsprit. A

square sail Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which a sailing vessel's primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars that are perpendicular (or square) to the median plane of the keel and masts of the vessel. These sp ...

is furled by gathering it more closely to the yard than is achieved by the buntlines and clewlines and securing it to the

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

with

gaskets image:gaskets.jpg, Some seals and gaskets A gasket is a Seal (mechanical), mechanical seal which fills the space between two or more mating surfaces, generally to prevent leakage from or into the joined objects while under compression (physical), ...

. When bending a sail onto a yard, a square sail is usually furled at deck level, being tied to itself with temporary lashings, so as to provide a controllable package to haul aloft and fasten to the yard. Less common sail types may be furled in different ways, but following the general principle of gathering in and folding before lashing the sail to the yard or mast on which it is set. Many jibs and headsails are fitted with roller reefing or roller furling. The stay or the luff spar to which the sail is fixed is rotated (usually by a control line on a drum fitted just below the tack, with the line lead back to the cockpit). The rotation rolls the sail around the spar. This general system was introduced in 1887 and there are various modern improved versions. A strict terminology distinguishes between roller reefing and roller furling, with the latter not being robust enough to simply reef a sail.

References

Sailing rigs and rigging {{Water-transport-stub