Before you make me "walk the plank", I do a LOT of single handed day sailing.  Flaking and dousing the headsail is taxing my ageing body.  Ideally, I would want to have a roller furler that:

1. Uses existing forestay.

2. Allows use of existing headsails.

3. Is easily converted into "racing" trim.

Any feedback (positive or negative) is appreciated.

Hi Chappie,

I bought hull number 151 "Number Cruncher" in the spring.  It came with furlex roller furling which I have used all summer - I'm using this boat to teach the CYA courses so it is an ideal set-up.  To answer your questions:-

1)  I don't know of any roller furling system which uses a wire forestay - they all use a single or (preferable) twin foil system.

2)  You can use existing headsails provided they are modified by a sailmaker.  The luff needs to be shortened, typically by about a 13 to 15 inches.  Also, the leech needs to be fairly straight - no large roaches.  To state the perfectly obvious, you must remove all battens so sail shape isn't quite so good.  Finally, UV protection is needed if you leave the sail on the roller.  I had a #1 jib modified by North Sails - it works well, cost about 20% of buying a new sail.   The boat came with a decent genoa cut for roller furling.

3) Conversion to racing trim is quick and easy.   Twenty minutes work. Out come the racing sails and off you go.   The twin foil with twin halyards works wonderfully for racing.

Other comments:-

Singe handing a Laser 28 with roller furling plus a main fitted with slugs and lazy jacks is a snap.    Performance seems very good but I don't have another Laser to run against so I can't honestly comment on any possible performance loss.  In phrf we just keep up with the Andrews 26s and Pocket Rockets which have similar phrf numbers - and that's when using the roller furling, with no phrf adjustment for its use, and a crew of 3 as opposed to 5 or 6 on the other boats.  

Prior to this boat all my sailing and racing was done on boats with conventional wire forestays and hanked on sails.  I sneered at roller furling along with the rest of them.  Now I'm totally converted.  

One other unexpected bonus - last week it was blowing 20 knots steady and I had barely one hour free to undock sail and dock, singlehanded.  I just motored out of the marina, unfurled the jib, reached back and forth at 5.5 to 6 knots, and enjoyed a good 40 minutes of sailing.

Tony Cooke

Quote: Originally posted by tonycooke on 24 October 2004

---

Hi Chappie,

I bought hull number 151 "Number Cruncher" in the spring.  It came with furlex roller furling which I have used all summer - I'm using this boat to teach the CYA courses so it is an ideal set-up.  To answer your questions:-

1)  I don't know of any roller furling system which uses a wire forestay - they all use a single or (preferable) twin foil system.

2)  You can use existing headsails provided they are modified by a sailmaker.  The luff needs to be shortened, typically by about a 13 to 15 inches.  Also, the leech needs to be fairly straight - no large roaches.  To state the perfectly obvious, you must remove all battens so sail shape isn't quite so good.  Finally, UV protection is needed if you leave the sail on the roller.  I had a #1 jib modified by North Sails - it works well, cost about 20% of buying a new sail.   The boat came with a decent genoa cut for roller furling.

3) Conversion to racing trim is quick and easy.   Twenty minutes work. Out come the racing sails and off you go.   The twin foil with twin halyards works wonderfully for racing.

Other comments:-

Singe handing a Laser 28 with roller furling plus a main fitted with slugs and lazy jacks is a snap.    Performance seems very good but I don't have another Laser to run against so I can't honestly comment on any possible performance loss.  In phrf we just keep up with the Andrews 26s and Pocket Rockets which have similar phrf numbers - and that's when using the roller furling, with no phrf adjustment for its use, and a crew of 3 as opposed to 5 or 6 on the other boats.  

Prior to this boat all my sailing and racing was done on boats with conventional wire forestays and hanked on sails.  I sneered at roller furling along with the rest of them.  Now I'm totally converted.  

One other unexpected bonus - last week it was blowing 20 knots steady and I had barely one hour free to undock sail and dock, singlehanded.  I just motored out of the marina, unfurled the jib, reached back and forth at 5.5 to 6 knots, and enjoyed a good 40 minutes of sailing.

Tony Cooke

  

 

 

---

I also have a Furlex brand jib furling system that we roll a Kevlar 100% jib on. Haven't been able to blame a race on the system yet!

Comet172