Catalina 25 - Furler

[szymek]

Hi Folks,

My catalina currently does not have a furler... i've been planning on getting one for last couple of years. Today I was able to get one for good price - I went with Profurl C290. I was also looking at Harken 00AL. But i was able to get the Profurl for almost 200 less (which I plan to use towards new headsail).

Any experience with the profurl unit? Do you folks know whether the genoa from catalinadirect will fit with no issues with this furler?

Looking forward to feedback.

 

[Stu Jackson]

ProFurl makes great equipment, I like ours.

Fit? The only issue is the luff length of the genoa compared to the foil length between the top of the drum plus a foot or so to the masthead swivel. You should have measured this before you bought the sail, unless it's one you have already.

 

[szymek]

Seems that profurl and harken seem to be most talked about... but given I was able to save couple hundred I decided to go with Profurl.

I haven't bought the sail yet... I talked to one of my local sailmaker and I can get one of their stock sails for catalina 25 for honestly 1/2 the price... but i'm worried about the luff length.. as I figured that it might be different based on the furler you use. Then i also noticed the Ullman sails on CatalinaDirect.

I suppose I can take off the forestay and lay it out on the driveway to measure the length between top of the drum and end of the forestay - Mast is down and boat is awaing spring. :-(

 

[jrowan]

I guess that you've already bought the Profurl unit, which is good quality, but many C 25's came from Catalina with a CDI Roller Furling, which I believe is the least expensive, & probably the best suited to the size of your boat. I used to own a C 25 as well, & the Profurl may be a lil' overkill for the size of your boat. Ullman sails makes the jib sail that Catalina Direct sells, and I'm pretty sure that they make one specifically for a roller furling type requirement. The CDI furler is a simple design with less to go wrong, and its extrusion rod for the luff of the sail is designed to be flexible for when the mast is lowered during trailering, etc.

 

[szymek]

Hi Folks,

Well me being me... i kept on doing more homework as I wasn't 100% sure so I've decided to change my order to Harken 00AL. the price difference ended up being $165.

So here's is why i made this decision (for anyone doing the same homework)

First of all Profurl customer support is really poor. I've had some technical question so I've emailed them... after a week they've responded to me with a link to their website and advised me to look at the manual. Thanks ProFurl - outstanding customer service!!!

Profurl has enclosed bearings which can potentially seize (of course not in immediate future), where as Harken does not and they just need to be flushed with fresh water once in a while. But on the flip side, ProFurl has 10 year warranty.

Profurl comes with single grove foil and Harken with twin. It would be a key for a racer which is not my case.

The foil on Profurl is round where on Harken it's oval.

Harken can be mounted 2 1/2 above deck and based on looking at manual seems that lowest you can get the profurl is 4 1/2.

Profurl foils seems to be joined by small screws that over time seem to undo after a while no matter how careful you are.

Technically both unit seem to be high quality units and i did have a hard time picking one. I've called catalinadirect and talked to their tech support (talk about exceptional customer service!!!) and they highly recommended the Harken unit.

So i've made a final call to get the 00AL unit!!!

So now I need to get a furling sail!! ahhh.. I'm looking at North Sail - Radian cloth or Ullman from catalina direct. I'm not too sure what to even ask just yet.. as i'm just starting to do my homework... but i'd appreciate any advice that I should be focusing on. Any feedbakc on the Ullman sails??

 

[Dave Groshong]

Give us a shot at your business Szymek, we can probably beat CatalinaDirect's price.

 

[jrowan]

ps. I had a Harken Mark III model furler on my last boat, a S 2 28' racer. Perhaps it was not originally installed perfectly - inherited it from a P.O., but I thought the Harken was a piece of junk! It constantly seized at the drum, or got halyard wrap all the time. The Profurl unit is at least designed to prevent halyard wrap from occurring. If the whole point is to make sailing easier, then I could never recommend the Harken furler. It always jammed when under heavy wind condition, that is right when U needed it! I found its faults to be potentially dangerous. Also the lower drum is made from cheap plastic resin, not a durable type of material like stainless steel, etc. Just my 2 cents.
I will however recommend North Sails - there the best.

 

[Dave Groshong]

ps. I had a Harken Mark III model furler on my last boat, a S 2 28' racer. Perhaps it was not originally installed perfectly - inherited it from a P.O., but I thought the Harken was a piece of junk! It constantly seized at the drum, or got halyard wrap all the time. The Profurl unit is at least designed to prevent halyard wrap from occurring. If the whole point is to make sailing easier, then I could never recommend the Harken furler. It always jammed when under heavy wind condition, that is right when U needed it! I found its faults to be potentially dangerous. Also the lower drum is made from cheap plastic resin, not a durable type of material like stainless steel, etc. Just my 2 cents.
I will however recommend North Sails - there the best.

I've had the opposite experience, I've had 3 different Harken furlers and they all worked very well. You are absolutely correct about installation, it makes all the difference in the world, for any brand of furler, a halyard restrainer is a must.

 

[Alansails]

We have a Harken Furler-I purchased and we (Admiral also) loves it. We bought our sails for this boat and our Catalina 22 from Doyle-Detroit- It is ALL aout customer service and familiarity with the boat. Any issue we thought we had was resolved without question. My friend has also purchased Catalina 30 sails there again it has worked out well.

 

[szymek]

Hi folks,

I was offline for little while.

In terms of Harken being crap unit. Well the more I searched and talked to more people about it, I've found all kind of feedback. Seems like at the end of the day they're quite equal products and it's up to personal preference.

However based on my homework above... I've decided that I will stick with the Harken 00AL. And most definitely.... i will install the halyard restrainer for sure.

 

[szymek]

In terms of sails:

Seems like North Sails have some good sails... but they are on the pricey side. But as anything in life... you get what you pay for...

I've contacted Doyle couple of days ago and I'm just waiting for a quote. Also when i was at the boat show couple weeks ago, i've chatted with UK-Halsey. I've misplaced that quote and I just found it again few days ago.

I've chatted with their local sail designer and he spent all the time I needed to answer all my questions. On top of that, their quote was bit less than all the other ones that I got. I was very impressed with him going out of his way to answer all my questions. I'm planning on going to their loft on Sat to chat bit more.

Now I have another dillema. for the UV cover should i get sunbrella or UV protected dacron? I know that nothing is better than sunbrella but it adds bit of weight ( apparently close to 3 x as much as UV protected dacron). I guess not a big deal when the wind is around 10kt but when it gets down to probably around 5kt apparently you can see the difference. I'm on the lake ontario - average wind on the lake is 8 - 12 kt (probably) but it drops to couple and I go out with up to 20kt.

So i guess the questions are:
1. Any of you dealt with UK-Halsey?
2 Sunbrella or UV protected dacron?