Furling system

[fred1diver]

Hello everyone.
I am thinking about maybe replacing my furler
It is old, some of the foil sections are damaged.
Found some replacement parts, but most are slightly/a lot bent.

we currently have a furlex Mk11, not sure if it was original with the boat in ‘72 or was added later?

So I was wondering what would you all recommend for a 30 ft boat and where should I look to buy it in Canada???

 

[jssailem]

I am a fan of the Harken MKIV furler. The 0 Unit is designed for boats 22 to 30ft (6.5 - 9.1 m) in length.

https://www.harken.com/en/shop/mkiv-unit-0/

I have had the 1 Unit on my boat since 2018. Love it. Easy to rig. The open structure makes cleaning and maintenance easy. No issues with the extrusions. Sail slips into the slot and can be raised or lowered without crew help.

They are available from local Canadian shops.

https://www.harken.com/en/store-locator/

The Chandlery
367 Poulin Ave, Ottawa, ON K2B 5V3, Canada

 

[fred1diver]

Ok, a big thank you, that is my go to store locally, I will definitely go and talk to them, great bunch of people

 

[colemj]

If you want all the features and quality of the Harken MkIV, which is a fantastic furler, but want to pay 1/2 the price, the Reefit is an outstanding deal. After a lot of consideration, we went with one over the Harken and are very pleased.

One problem is the manufacturing facility burned down a while ago. They moved to a different facility, but I don't know if there are any gaps in production, nor if units are currently available.

The Canadian dealer is: Sailing Hardware and Furlers - Island Planet Sails

The website isn't the most informative, but the owner is very responsive by email.

The units are drop-shipped from Tasmania, so it will be shipped to you, not to a distributor you need to arrange pickup with. When we ordered ours, we received it from Tasmania in ~4 days.

A note on the Harken - they make two lines of furlers, the MkIV and some other name. The other one is a budget one, and is at best a middling unit. If you go with Harken, you want the MkIV.

Mark

 

[shemandr]

I would guess that a 1972 Pearson 30 would not have jib furling as original equipment. 'Course I was 17 years old and didn't sail. So ...

 

[BarryL]

Hello,

My boat came with a profurl. It's OK but not great. When it broke I replaced it with a Reefit. Like Mark wrote above, I bought from Island Planet. The owner was great to deal with. As Mark wrote, Reefit burned to the ground in January. It does take a long time to get parts from Australia to North America. My rigger installed the Reefit unit and he said the instructions were clear and it was easy to do.

Prior to Profurl I had Selden Furlex units. I was very happy with Furlex. I have no experience with Harken furlers but I do like Harken gear in general and I think their support is fantastic.

Karver also makes a furling unit. You should get info on all of them and then decide. Would you be installing it yourself or hiring someone?

Good luck,
Barry

 

[garymalmgren]

RE" Reefit.
Good to see an Aussie product get a mention.
Although I am more than surprised by Mark's comment. "When we ordered ours, we received it from Tasmania in ~4 days. "

In Australia, Reefit is seen as the best that you can buy.
Here is a post from an Aus sailing site in reference to their service.


2 Apr 2014 8:32pm
REFIT FURLER

This is a good news story about supplier service, which is a pleasure to receive.

I had noticed that furling of my jib seemed to be getting harder with the sail not furling evenly. I removed the sail and had a look at the furler bearings. The halyard swivel bearing was failing, with excessive clearance and the balls bunched up. I contacted the manufacturer to request pricing for new parts. Answer was that the furler was manufactured in 2007, still new really, so just send back for free repair or replacement.
Now that is standing by your product.

After a second long phone call we worked out that thrust adjustment was loose and fixed the thing in about 10 minutes. If ever needed I would buy another one in a flash.

 

[colemj]

Although I am more than surprised by Mark's comment. "When we ordered ours, we received it from Tasmania in ~4 days. "

I admit that was a guess, but it was much faster than I expected. I just looked at the order and I paid for it on May 12, it was shipped Fedex Air, and installed it on June 10. We were hauled out for several weeks, and the furler was the last project. I remember the box sitting there ready to be installed for a couple of weeks because I had to keep moving it around to get to stuff.

There is a lifetime warranty on these, and the owner is determined for this to be true in practice.

Mark

 

[fred1diver]

I emailed them yesterday, I will wait to see what they say

 

[garymalmgren]

Not doubting you at all, Mark.
The reason that I pointed that out was that the postal service within Australia is notoriously slow,

Wait to hear how you get on Fred.

gary

 

[colemj]

The reason that I pointed that out was that the postal service within Australia is notoriously slow,

It's not just Australia, and not just speed. We shipped a lot of stuff into Panama from the US, where you order something to a Miami freight forwarder, then it gets put on a plane or ship (your choice) to Panama. Pay by the pound if air, and cubic feet if ship. It was constantly 7-10 days shipping within the US, even for things shipped only within Florida, but only 2 days from arrival in Miami to in my hands in Panama. And the cost to ship something internal in the US by cheapest method was almost always 5-10x the cost of flying it Miami-Panama overnight.

Shipping cost and speed in the US has become horrible.

Mark

 

[BarryL]

Hello,

My ReefIt furler took about a month to arrive. it was not ReefIt's fault. The furler went from Australia to the Philippines to china to west coast USA to my house on the east coast. It sat in China for a week waiting to go through customs.

Barry

 

[Barnacle Bill]

I'm a big fan of Furlex furlers. They are quality products and have made a lot of improvements since 1972. The completeness of the kit is another plus. You get a new forestay included so you aren't putting a new furler on an old forestay, which provides quality control over all the components of the system. You also get the blocks to bring the furling line aft and the halyard retainers are included as well. Often these are optional extras you have to buy in addition to the furler itself, which brings up the price of others. Just my 2 cents.

 

[fred1diver]

At the moment I ordered a new forestay for our old one, I do have a few ends of the luff extrusions, but I think I will only have to cut one section by about an inch maybe an inch and a half, drill the pin hole in the new location and re-assemble, at least for this year.
I ended up having to cut the forestay to disassemble the unit not too happy about that, but looking at the bright side, w didn’t know the age of that forestay, so it will count as preventive maintenance, the rest of the shrouds and backstay are in excellent condition.
so hopefully it will be the last major spending for this season.
now if we can just get the boat in the water, over a month later this year because of the high water, we did put the docks in last weekend, we were supposed to splash yesterday but the guy with the trailer to move the cradles’s truck broke, so looking forward to alternative for the club, maybe next week, keeping my fingers crossed