Roller Furling or Bimini

zeehag

zeehag

.
Mar 26, 2009
3,198
1976 formosa 41 yankee clipper santa barbara. ca.(not there)
ok here goes....
roller furling to help younot have to always go forward while under way...
bimini so you have no sun on head when sailing
roller furling to keep you safe in heavy weather--ye can always rig a shade while sailing, kinda, which gets us back to
bimini because you aint gonna make loonnngg passages for a while, not until you have both.
yeh i am no help whatsoever.
i already have roller furling and no bimini. no dodger....
but i has roller furling.....

oh yeah and what bad sed.....
 
C

Calif. Ted

.
Jun 8, 2004
3,009
Catalina 320 Dana Point
Without a Bimini you'll go sailing more to cool off, that's the bonus of OC & DP, nobody's more than 15 minutes to the ocean breezes.:D
I find a dodger does double duty, a little shade and a little wet protection both.
 
Scott T-Bird

Scott T-Bird

.
Oct 26, 2008
6,432
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
The bimini is nice for shade, but it's amazing how often the sun is not directly overhead or the boat's orientation is just right so that I end up in the sun despite the bimini. It seems that most of the time, the bimini is shading the water next to the boat. The bimini is too high to effectively shade the cockpit but it's not high enough so that I don't have to stoop under it. Still, I'll put it on during the heat of summer (but not in the past 3, although it would have been appreciated last Sunday), and take it off as soon as I deem it unnecessary. It's a nuisance for sailing. Our dog seems to appreciate it more than I do - she generally finds the small patch of shade it provides in a corner of the cockpit, and she plants herself there when it is hot.

I vote for the furler ...
 
Brian D

Brian D

.
Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
jwing said:
All my sailing has been in eastern USA, Bahamas, and Caribbean, so I may have a different basis for my opinion. That said, I would opt for a bimini, for personal protection and comfort. For the jib, I have installed a simple jib downhaul on my boat. I don't have to leave the cockpit to lower the foresail. It works great. Here's a potentially better system than mine:

http://www.widgetsailor.com/myboat/downhaul/index.html

I haven't felt the need for the added complexity, so I haven't tried it out yet.
Click to expand
Brilliant, Jwing, that is just too cool. Well, at least I know I can have a temporary furler (if I may be allowed a little latitude). Thanks for the link.
 
kito

kito

.
Sep 13, 2012
2,011
1979 Hunter Cherubini 30 Clemmons
Buy a nice furler and a cheap bimini. No reason you have to buy some expensive bimini now. The cheap ones seem to hold up well at 4th the cost. In about 4 years you would have saved enough to order that expensive one.
 
MattObjects

MattObjects

.
Mar 23, 2009
139
Rafiki 35 North East, MD
kito said:
Buy a nice furler and a cheap bimini.
Click to expand
I second this. On our last boat, a Grampian 26, we bought a super cheap bimini on Ebay, made of snap-together aluminum tubing with plastic fittings and cheap vinyl fabric. It cost about $150. After the first year, I bought a tubing bender from Harbor Freight for $60 and bent $120 worth of stainless steel tubing to replace the thin-walled aluminum tubing on the bimini, using that tubing as a template. The next season, I ordered $100 in stainless fittings to replace the plastic ones, some of which were failing. By the third season, the vinyl fabric was looking tattered and my wife sewed a new cover with $70 in sunbrella, thread, and zippers, using the old vinyl cover as a pattern.

So over the course of three seasons, we went from having a cheap aluminum bimini to a custom stainless steel and sunbrella bimini, all for about $500. We improved the bimini as our time, finances, and skill allowed, but had shade in the cockpit throughout the process. You don't need to spend thousands to have a nice bimini.
 
J

jwing

.
Jun 5, 2014
503
ODay Mariner Guntersville
Scott T-Bird said:
The bimini is nice for shade, but it's amazing how often the sun is not directly overhead or the boat's orientation is just right so that I end up in the sun despite the bimini. It seems that most of the time, the bimini is shading the water next to the boat. The bimini is too high to effectively shade the cockpit but it's not high enough so that I don't have to stoop under it. Still, I'll put it on during the heat of summer (but not in the past 3, although it would have been appreciated last Sunday), and take it off as soon as I deem it unnecessary. It's a nuisance for sailing. Our dog seems to appreciate it more than I do - she generally finds the small patch of shade it provides in a corner of the cockpit, and she plants herself there when it is hot.

I vote for the furler ...
Click to expand
Your problem is not that the bimini is too high, it's that your boat's cockpit is too narrow. Time for a bigger, beamier boat. Purely for melanoma prevention, of course! ;)
 
Scott T-Bird

Scott T-Bird

.
Oct 26, 2008
6,432
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
You're absolutely right ...

jwing said:
Your problem is not that the bimini is too high, it's that your boat's cockpit is too narrow. Time for a bigger, beamier boat. Purely for melanoma prevention, of course! ;)
Click to expand
of course! :D If only all problems were so easily solved.
 
Pink Flamingo

Pink Flamingo

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Sep 27, 2008
80
Grampian 26 26 Penetang,Ontario
Guilty:blue tarp over cockpit:eek::eek:
I would go for the roller furling,if your boat is anything like mine,a bimini would be too low.
I have to duck when the boom comes over.:cussing:
 
S

skipperjb777

.
Jan 27, 2014
10
S2 9.2C Kemah
Depending on your age, size, and flexibility, I'd go with roller furling first. If you have to go through various yoga moves to get in and out of the cockpit to go forward, then for safety's sake a furling system should come first, and use tarps or what ever to provide additional shade.

My S2 center cockpit with bimini is setup so I can easily move in and out of the cockpit area safely. This past weekend I was one an Irwin Citation 34 which had the bimini up for the first time (we needed it here in the dark and cold Houston area). The side deck is too narrow for me to comfortably and safely use and coming in over the cabin trunk is.... well grace would never be used to describe the maneuver.
 
BudGates

BudGates

.
Apr 19, 2012
1,043
O'Day Daysailor 17 Nevis MN
I wouldn't want to be without a roller furling system, especially when single handed. My current boat came with one and I built one for my previous boat and for a friend's boat. The system that came with my boat is strictly for furling, not reefing. It's a simple system from Harken that allows you me to use my hank on sails. Although I did install a bimini it's not what I would consider a necessity. My vote is for the furler.
 
agprice22

agprice22

.
Aug 3, 2012
2,542
Performance Cruising Telstar 28 302 Watkins Glen
Furler... And a boom tent. You can make a boom tent for very little money.

Thanks,

Andrew
 
Z

Zeb

.
May 4, 2015
2
Seaward 25 Mid-Mo
Furler. I went with Schaefer Snap Furler and am quite pleased. Remember you'll have to have changes to the sail as well so some added cost there.

- Zeb
 
Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

.
Feb 26, 2004
23,336
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Brian D said:
Brilliant, Jwing, that is just too cool. Well, at least I know I can have a temporary furler (if I may be allowed a little latitude). Thanks for the link.
Click to expand
Brian, actually a good idea, buty IMHO, altogether too complicated.

Try this, I've posted it many, many times. I used it on our C25 for 13 years.

Sail on port tack, heave to, douse jib w/single downhaul line, it'll stay on the foredeck if you keep the downhaul and jib sheets taut.

Good luck.
 

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Dave Groshong

Dave Groshong

SBO Staff
Staff member
Jan 25, 2007
1,867
Catalina 22 Seattle
I'm with HukilauMike, get a furler and a nice sombrero. We can most likely beat anybody's price on Harken or Furlex furlers.
 
CloudDiver

CloudDiver

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Sep 8, 2014
2,551
Catalina 22 Swing Keel San Diego
Brian,
Shop the best deal on a furler you can find first, then do your bimini the smart way, the 'Stingy' way. Check out StingySailor.com and look for his article on the Bimini he installed (article is called Budget Bimini Top Solution) He cites an ebay source where you can buy "stock" dimension Bimini units, only a few simple modifications are required. the problem with most Biminis on the market is that they always have to be 'custom' for the dimensions of your boat, ergo the high cost. A little sweat equity, perhaps a few changes in fitting hardware, and shortening a tube or two and you can have bimini for 1/4 the price of the 'custom' or OEM price.
 
3

3rdbase

.
Jun 23, 2014
9
IONA 30 CT
I'd go with a new boat. The way prices are dropping, you could probably sell your boat and add a just a few dollars, then find a boat with both a roller furler and a bimini. But if that's not an option, the bimini often gets in the way when sailing. You (on some boats/designs) need to take it down in order to trim the main properly. I guess it comes down to how much time you spend at the dock vs actual sailing.
 
capta

capta

.
Jun 4, 2009
5,072
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
3rdbase said:
I'd go with a new boat. The way prices are dropping, you could probably sell your boat and add a just a few dollars, then find a boat with both a roller furler and a bimini. But if that's not an option, the bimini often gets in the way when sailing. You (on some boats/designs) need to take it down in order to trim the main properly. I guess it comes down to how much time you spend at the dock vs actual sailing.
Click to expand
Way to revive a ghost thread. By now he's probably got both. lol
 
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