Has anyone tried in-boom furling?

[Douglas Miles]

I saw the interest and comments about the in-mast furling systems. I have not been that impressed to this date with the ones I have used on larger boats. Can someone share their experiences with in-boom furling systems? They look like they may be an easier solution to the problem of dealing with the main when your crew lacks sailing competency. They look like an easier retrofit, you can still use battens, no complicated lazy jacks, and no need to change rigging or risk damage to the mast while trailering. Besides expense, what are the drawbacks to these systems and why are so few of them out there?I sailed all day yesterday on my roller-furled jib only because I didn't want to deal with the main through the women and children that were on board!

 

[toomas]

I've tried boom-furling

I had a 30 foot Ballad with a boom-furling system - and it worked "well". When it was time to reduce the main I seldom succeeded to roll the main on the boom with a good stretch at the bottom. So the sail was wrinkled in the wrong way - not beautiful and certainly not effective. If I did the furling in the harbour without wind - quite OK, but the hard wind used to pull the sail out a little bit here and a little bit there - and there I was, with a wrinkled sail again. So if you want such a system, fix something to give you the possibility to stretch the main out just by the boom. And then you're back to the regular reefing system.toomas