I'm tossing up this question to understand where others find pros and cons. I've had a trailer sailer that had no flaking system, unless you count a couple of bungees. Then, I had a standard lazy jack flaking system on my next boat. It was good. I've used the dutchman flaking system that came with my Catalina until it came time to replace the main sail, and at that point I converted to the North Sails Quickcover stack pack thingy. The I find the latter to be best from my experience. It doesn't completely eliminate the need to step up to the mast, but to me, the pros from this flaking solution far outweigh the cons from the others. I have not tried in-mast furling. As I start to consider the possibility of a newer boat, I see that there appears to be a division between the major production brands. There are many other differences between brands, but it seems Catalinas and Hunters seem to be popularly fitted with in-mast, while Jeanneau and Beneteau favor stack packy flaking. I think I'd prefer full battens and the security in knowing that I can drop my mainsail into my cover without worrying about an in-mast getting jammed while the sail is up/out. How important is the mainsail system to you, and what kinds of factors play into which you prefer?