Gadgets and gillickies.
Reliance on gadgetry, especially on maritime vessels, is anathema to seagoing prudence. It is a process specification rather than a design specification– a reliance on HOW something is used rather than that it IS used. This, sad to say, is typical amongst modern consumers who believe that more equipment means less responsibilitiy for them. We thus have people going to sea who view the LORAN screen like they do a video game and have not the slightest concept of how to get back when (and I do not say IF) the 12VDC fails.In my opinion Hunter has no right selling gadgets to customers who do not understand them or what their lives would be like without them. It is unethical; but it is not illegal. Caveat emptor. But then MY nature is to be didactic– if I were a salesman at Hunter I'd probably talk you out of it by mere virtue of explaining it to you, and then I'd consider what I was able to sell you instead a respectable deal on both sides. But then, my manager would never keep me on long in that capacity!The ugly fact is that if people are going to pay for it, American commerce is going to sell it to them. Unrestrained business need not know any ethical code but that the dollar is king. I do not propose formal controls on business, however; ideally a man's conscience ought to be good enough. Sadly, some guys are okay with not caring about the rest of us.The Stowaway-type furling main has several MAJOR drawbacks in sail shape and so forth, but the biggest nightmare I can think of is its theoretical propensity to electrically fail or mechancially jam under adverse weather conditions, necessitating either that you go forward to the base of the mast and hand-crank the S.O.B. in against the friction of the stalled motor or else take out the serated steak knife and give what's left of the main as a stupidity sacrifice to King Neptune. Of course all of this will have to be done in the really cosy weather conditions that caused the failure, like, let's say, Force Eight over the stern threatening a jibe and 8-10-ft combers flooding the cockpit and shorting out batteries. No thank you!My advice to the rest of us is to learn to handle the main. Slab-reefing is NOT that tough on a 32-ft boat. And keep in mind some truisms: Anything electrical is going to fail. Anything complicated is going to jam. Anything that looks easy is very likely to become difficult under the most adverse imaginable conditions. Labour-saving devices are ultimately going to ask to be paid back, on their terms (not the terms of your MasterCard).Sorry to be the bearer of such unpleasant tidings. Ok, shoot me.J Cherubini II