Roller furling to handle the main?

[George]

Hi everyone, has anyone installed or used a roller furling to handle the main? When I say roller furling, I mean a system that would normally be used on your head sail. I recently saw an O'day 272 for sale on E-Bay that had such a system.I did contact the owner for more info. He did not install the system, but did say that it worked great. If you have any information on this subject please contact me. I would like to install this on my boat before spring. My Lats & Atts just arrived in the mail,time to go dream of warmer days...Thank you for your time.George248-887-2448 P.S. My boat :1988 O'day 272, I love this boat!mcdonald75@comcast.net

 

[Richard Owen]

Main Furler

I have seen some add-on main furlers which are attched to the back of the mast. I think Profurl made one, maybe some others like Schaeffer.Check out their web sites.RO

 

[Chuck Wayne]

add on in mast furling

Selden also makes a system, similar to their in mast furling-you rivet on an additional section to the aft side of the mast that contains the furler-it's pretty expensive, though

 

[ron thweatt]

dont do it

We have had 4 members try it on diffrent boats at HIYC they spend more time trying to get it to work than they do using the sail if the mast is stright it will work some time but if you rake back it will put a tention that will cause the thing not to work the one that did used a new loose footed main only my 10cents worth

 

[larry w.]

rollerfurling main

George; I would advise against adding a main furler on any rig that didn't come from the factory. I have an in-mast furler on my Beneteau 40 and while it's OK, I'd rather have a full-battened main with in-boom furling. The mast furling depowers the main- no battens, loosefooted, no roach- and it does jam in brisk winds. A full-batten with lazy jacks would be better, I think. Just MHO.

 

[Paul K]

Don't do it!

Have to agree with Larry W; in-mast setup leads to a screwy looking main that doesn't sail well. On a trip to Bermuda we spent the entire time getting our main to set properly for the various conditions. We were happy with it for about twenty minutes on a 3-4 day trip. Problems Larry mentions at the top of the mast can't be fixed w/o going up or taking the mast down. If you want to rig up something, an in-boom setup would be preferable, since it still allows battens and easier access for fixing jams. Windage on the in-mast or behind the mast setups would be another negative. Lazyjacks or even the Dutchman system would likely be a lot cheaper.

 

[Chuck Wayne]

in-mast furling

Even though I pointed you to the selden add-on, I wouldn't do it as a retrofit. I've got the selden inmast on my 356, and we really like it-I also just got a Doyle swingbatten main to get back the horsepower. I had a dutchman on my 29.5 and it worked well-it's an easy install and doesn't change your main-that's what I would recommend. BTW, seems to me that the selden add-on was around $10K!