boom furling

[John O'Donald]

I am considering adding boom furling to my 1989 hunter ledgend 40I would like to raise the height of the boom where it attaches to the mast 3-6 inches for more head clearance and was hoping I could make up the lost sail area by using full battens and adding roach. From a performance standpoint I understand I would be better off with boom furling, do you agree? If performance would suffer too much I'll leave boom height alone. I am basically a cruiser that races 1-2 times a year. Also, I was wondering if anyone could give me a guess about recouping the investment of a furling system and new mainsail, if I would sell the boat in a couple years? does it add much value to a used boat?Thanks, John O'Donald

 

[Richard Owen]

Added Value

I think the boom furling systems are a great idea - probably the best way to get easy sail handling with performance....but....I don't really think that you should expect to get your money back in a resale situation. And, I think that applies to most boat add-ons. The best you can expect is that with extras your boat will sell faster than the one without them. maybe get a bit more but it seems that the market price has a fixed ceiling in most cases.ROwen

 

[Tim Stodola at Doyle Sails]

Mainsail handling

Hello John, welcome to the Doyle Sails forum.We get a lot of questions on this very subject.If you plan on keeping the boat for a while, the return realized will be your own. The investment to convert from a standard boom to a Furling boom is substantial, and you will need a new mainsail as is recommended by most furling boom manufacturers.If you are planning to sell the boat in a few years, and you have a standard boom, you may want to look into something like our Doyle Stackpack, along with a luff track system, to make sail handling easier, at a fraction of the cost of a Furling Boom. You can contact me direct at: timstodola@doyleplochsails.comfor more information on these systems, or visit, www.doylesails.com