C-22 Roller Furling Questions

[Aldo]

My wife came into a little money at Christmas and wants to get roller furling for our C-22. My son has a Harken roller furler on his. I have begun investigating this issue, and so far I have found that there are three manufactures that make roller furlers that fit a C-22. These are Harken, Shaefer, and CDI.
The Harken one is very expensive, approximately twice as expensive as the Schaefer. My son says that his Harken furler works great. It came with his boat. His has two grooves in the foil, which he used while sailing on our summer cruise on the Chesapeake, (see the attached photo). The Schaefer one only has a single groove in the foil, which comes in two pieces. We saw the CDI furler at the Annapolis Boat Show this past fall. The salesman said that one of it's best features was that you can't reduce tension on the luff of the sail. This certainly did not sound like an advantage to us. If you can't reduce the tension on the sail when you aren't sailing, you are destroying the shape of your sail. We told this to the salesman, and he replied that maybe this furler wasn't the right one for us.
My question is do any of you have any recommendations or comments on these roller furlers, especially if you have one of them.

Thanks, Aldo

 

[JoeWhite]

I have a CDI furler that I installed on my sailboat and I think it works just fine. It is a low end product but then you will not be taking the sailboat into an ocean. I do not reduce the tension on the luff of my jib and I have never heard that this is beneficial or damaging to the jib. The purpose of a double groove on the luff is so that you can exchange the jib while on the way. Unless you are racing I do not see why pay for this additional feature. I hope this helps

 

[don12596]

Aldo,
im in just now instaling a harken furler, so this is what a rigger here in the northwest said about the cdi, they have had more problems with cdi furler track breaking down uv damage or the whole unit dying in 2-3 years and you get what you pay for, i know from reading the forms that people like the cdi if they are trailing their boat the stiff foil of the harken is a bit more to deal with. i wouldd talk to your local rigger get their input if you go with harken their tec support is great. if you call around to local rigging shops you may score a used one for half of the cost.

 

[Ken]

Schaefer

Aldo,

First they are all good, it's true the CDI is the cheapest of the three but check out the warranty you'll find it very good.

I have the Schaefer SnapFurl, I chose it for a couple of reasons, it uses ball bearings rather than bushings, it uses the jib halyard to raise the sail, (offering a bit more control) and it has a larger open drum.

I have since came into position of a CDI furler as well (I haven't used it yet)

The Schaefer is as smooth as it gets when the time comes to roll the sail, doesn't matter what the conditions.

I sail with folks that have the CDI and only one has ever had any complaints, which I'm sure should he contact CDI any problems would be resolved. (he also did not buy his furler new)

What I learned when I was doing the research for a furler was that it finally came down to personal choice of the three. I couldn't justify the nearly double cost of the harken so it was out of the race pretty quick.

Other things I have learned since I acquired the CDI, the foil & drum seem to be much lighter than the Schaefer, the drum is smaller. (both could be a deciding factor for trailering, I haven't had any problems raising the stick and I do it alone)

TIP: regardless of which you buy secure the foll to the mast using two pieces of velcro wrapped loosely around the mast to stop it from possibly falling off the boat as you raise the stick. (I learned this one the hard way, the drum fell off the boat and nearly toppled the entire rig the first time I raised the mast.)

If you go with the Schaefer you WILL have to use a halyard restrainer to stop halyard wrap. One is supplied (I opted to buy the next heavier as it used two rivets per side as opposed to the supplied that only used one per side)

While your into it add a NEW forestay at the same time, you will not be able to see it once the foil is put on.

 

[Team118]

I had a 22 for over 6 years before moving up. The last year I owned the boat, I bought a CDI furling system.

It worked great and wasn't that bad installing it! I bought through the Sailwarehouse and I thought I got a good price.

The only issue I ever had was probably my fault. The head of the jib in the coil might have been too high and when I tried to open the jib up it would sometimes grab the mainsheet shroud. I had to either be slow opening the jib or raise the main first.

Otherwise the system was GREAT and I was sorry I never bought it earlier. I sailed on Lake Ontario and the main and reefing system was already geared for single handed sailing so the furler made this boat a breeze!

Good Luck