Roller Furling for F235

[Joe Bainbridge]

I notice many owners don't put the roller furler on the fore stay fitting because of the space issue. Has anyone been succesful adding roller furling and using the fore stay eye?

 

[danknoxsf]

I have seen a couple.

I have seen a couple of F235 with a furling headsail. They seem to sail fine to me, but I have never been on one, but from a distance I couldn’t see any problems.Actually there was a boat for sale a few months ago on the 'net that had both a furling headsail and mainsail. I saw it when I was looking for a F235. (I think it was somewhere on the East Coast and I being in San Francisco I didn’t really look in buying it.) The boat had been used by a person in a wheelchair and appeared to be in excellent condition.Well furling sails are not very good for racing for most of us I think they would be fine and obviously are going to be very convenient in a lot of ways. If you wanted a furling headsail I say go for it.Good Luck.--Dan

 

[Jeo Bainbridge]

Location of Furler connection

The problem is, in order to use the fore stay eye for a furler the furler drum will hit the bow pulpit unles you mount the furler up high. I spoke to Beneteau. They say attaching the furler to the Jib tack eye is OK. This way you can mount the furler lower since you have some clearance between the tack eye location and pulpit. Down side is the tack is a bit further back.Performance when using a good furler isn't bad if you get one you can remove the drum for racing. the ones with double tracks allow you to do fast sail changes.