Headsail furlers

[zoidberg]

Would those in the know kindly rank the various makes in ascending 'cost' order? If there's an opinion on Value For Money, that would be helpful, too.
Rigging wire 7mm, modest size boat.

 

[Tranona]

Most modestly priced is Plastimo. Go up and you find a fairly tight price range with Selden probably the most popular because they dominate the OE market Very happy with both Seldens I have had. No doubt others will come in with why they chose other than Selden. Outlier is Sailspar continuous line which has many advocates.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Currently have Plastimo furling, works fine but never looks as good as the Seldon, and I wonder about longevity compared to Selden.

 

[roaringgirl]

Our boat came with a profurl. After a few years of gradually diminishing performance/increasing friction, I removed the drum to replace the bearings. What I discovered was that the bearings were indeed shot - they rely on lips to keep the grease in and everything else out and eventually they fail on both counts. I think some people have drilled and tapped profurls to add a grease nipple which would probably improve performance and longevity. While the profurl was on the bench I had the opportunity to compare the new, sealed, greased bearings with an old harken dry-bearing MarkIV.

I was amazed to discover that the even the brand new profurl bearings with all their grease and lips offer considerable resistance to turning, whereas the used harken on the bench next to it span around like a child's toy. Needless to say, I am a complete convert to the Harken dry bearing system, and have now sailed about 20,000 miles with it. It still spins just as easily as the day I bought it, has never missed a beat and just gets a bucketful of fresh water about once a year, whether it needs it or not. It also has the increased benefit of a profile which spins independently of the head, halyard and clew attachments, which means the sail has a much better shape when reefed.

 

[geem]

Our boat came with a profurl. After a few years of gradually diminishing performance/increasing friction, I removed the drum to replace the bearings. What I discovered was that the bearings were indeed shot - they rely on lips to keep the grease in and everything else out and eventually they fail on both counts. I think some people have drilled and tapped profurls to add a grease nipple which would probably improve performance and longevity. While the profurl was on the bench I had the opportunity to compare the new, sealed, greased bearings with an old harken dry-bearing MarkIV.

I was amazed to discover that the even the brand new profurl bearings with all their grease and lips offer considerable resistance to turning, whereas the used harken on the bench next to it span around like a child's toy. Needless to say, I am a complete convert to the Harken dry bearing system, and have now sailed about 20,000 miles with it. It still spins just as easily as the day I bought it, has never missed a beat and just gets a bucketful of fresh water about once a year, whether it needs it or not. It also has the increased benefit of a profile which spins independently of the head, halyard and clew attachments, which means the sail has a much better shape when reefed.

Interesting. My Profurl (an NC420) rotates with far less friction than my Selden

 

[Chiara’s slave]

My profurl is plagued by friction, and it's brand new.

 

[Refueler]

I've had two systems over the years ....

Profurl

Plastimo

Both work .. but I consider the Profurl was better. My Plastimo had the common problem of halyard wrap - which needed solution. The Plastimo 'doughnut' was total failure ... the only way to cure it - was to add a second smaller line to a block on mast ... This line is at greater angle to the furling Halyard swivel and stops it from wrapping.
I also find it is not as free rotation ..
The plastic inner at joints wears and can need extra hard pull to get sail luff past.

The Profurl - I found better as the furling line was also the sail hoist. The original halyard was unused. Because the furling line was used - there was no halyard wrap . The line entered furler ... ran up channel to top of extrusions, round a bearing and back down as 'halyard' ...

 

[Goldie]

I don’t notice many around in UK but I have Schaefer RR on yankee and staysail, and I can’t fault them.

http://www.schaefermarine.co.uk/SCH.2012 Catalog.pdf#page=78

 

[Buck Turgidson]

I've got sailspar continuous line. Can't fault it.

 

[sailaboutvic]

@Refueler said he had problems with the halyard wrapping around , this can be a proplem with many furlers .
Which is why while fitting a new system add a preventer eye to the mast to stop this happening

 

[dankilb]

I’m guessing a ProFurl is a fair bit more £££ than Plastimo (and many others).

Having completely rebuilt our 30+ yr old ProFurl 420 (10mm forestay) I’ve got a love/hate feeing towards them.

OTOH, I was able to completely refurb ours down to the last circlip, lip seal, bearings and grub screw. All parts were standard engineering supplies (SimplyBearings, Accu, etc.) and I no specialist tools were required (I got away without a press, even, with some ingenuity).

The rebuild unit(s) have no discernible friction. Indeed, they were fine before, right up until the lower unit chewed up its bearing due to corrosion.

OTOH, when you need genuine parts from ProBoat the prices are astronomical. I paid best part of £100 for what is essentially a clevis pin with threaded ends. They supplied 304 nuts with that - cheeky sods!

When we looked I think a complete new assembly, for our size (16m foil), was over £4k!

 

[Yellow Ballad]

Been very happy with my Sailspar, the "old sea dog" on youtube has gone half way around the world on his unit which I think was one of the older models.

I would have to look back but think it was around £1400 for my 30 foot masthead 6mm wire jobbie.

 

[geem]

I’m guessing a ProFurl is a fair bit more £££ than Plastimo (and many others).

Having completely rebuilt our 30+ yr old ProFurl 420 (10mm forestay) I’ve got a love/hate feeing towards them.

OTOH, I was able to completely refurb ours down to the last circlip, lip seal, bearings and grub screw. All parts were standard engineering supplies (SimplyBearings, Accu, etc.) and I no specialist tools were required (I got away without a press, even, with some ingenuity).

The rebuild unit(s) have no discernible friction. Indeed, they were fine before, right up until the lower unit chewed up its bearing due to corrosion.

OTOH, when you need genuine parts from ProBoat the prices are astronomical. I paid best part of £100 for what is essentially a clevis pin with threaded ends. They supplied 304 nuts with that - cheeky sods!

When we looked I think a complete new assembly, for our size (16m foil), was over £4k!

About four years ago , my very old Profurl was pretty worm out. We made the decision to replace everything. Since we were in the Caribbean we looked to the USA for a replacement. Profurl sold very few of the NC variety as they are more expensive than the standard C variety. Profurl decided to discontinue the NC for lack of sales. We got the NC for bra d new for $2400 US. It has less plastic parts and some titanium parts. Bearings are identical to the C model. It's just more heavy duty. It's on our inner forestay flying our blade jib. This sail tends to get used in winds above 20 kts right up to storm force. I decided a bit of heavy duty on this furler was worth having?

 

[Stemar]

I wouldn't use Plastimo for a full-on racing boat or for a blue water cruiser, but my Snapdragon 24 had a Plastimo furler of indeterminate, but significant age when I bought her. It lasted 12 years of a good bit of use before the bottom bearings wore out. The Plastimo replacement was still behaving like new at 7 years old.

The furler (not Plastimo) on Jazzcat needed refurbishing when I bought her. The rigger who was doing the standing rigging recommended replacing it with a Plastimo because it would be cheaper than the bits needed for the other furler.

 

[PhillM]

Fitted a seldon 50 on Paean and it never missed a beat. Just had a plastimo 406 professionally fitted to Swift / Corribee mk2 and it’s been troublesome from the start. Most disappointed. I’ve still to get to the bottom of the problems so it may not be the kit … but still atm I would not recommend.

 

[BabaYaga]

I fitted a Harken system in 1992 (mark 1 I believe) for a 26 sqm genoa, 6mm stay. It has been totally trouble free and is still rolling fine. The torlon balls were renewed 20 years ago though, but not because of any malfunction.
The rigger who recently put a new stay wire in (for the 2nd time) said that in his experience Harken systems tend to be long lasting and rarely cause any problems.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

My previous boat had a Plastimo 800 furler; excellent and trouble free for many years.

 

[geem]

I fitted a Harken system in 1992 (mark 1 I believe) for a 26 sqm genoa, 6mm stay. It has been totally trouble free and is still rolling fine. The torlon balls were renewed 20 years ago though, but not because of any malfunction.
The rigger who recently put a new stay wire in (for the 2nd time) said that in his experience Harken systems tend to be long lasting and rarely cause any problems.

My Selden furler on a 65m2 genoa was installed before 1995 when they stopped making that particular model. It periodically needs the bearings stripping to clean the grease out and then reassembling. The great thing about it is it uses loose s/s ball bearings that are readily available off eBay. Very well made. I bought a set of bearing races whilst they were available but there is no need to fit them yet. The boat has done a lot of miles with this furler. It's done 35k with me alone in the last 10 years.

 

[geem]

When people talk about how old their furler is and how trouble free, it would be good to know what mileage they have done. I am sure most furlers would be trouble free if you don't use them. If your boat sits in a marina and does low mileage its not likely to develope any ware or faults.
Our boat tends to get used hard at times.
This was a 180nm upwind passage from Cuba to the Bahamas in winds up to 38kts. Salt water gets into everything

 

[Refueler]

I am sure most furlers would be trouble free if you don't use them. If your boat sits in a marina and does low mileage its not likely to develope any ware or faults.

I suggest that not using or lack off can lead to furler binding / not turning freely. I know with my Plastimo 609 ... if I don't use it often ... when I do - it needs more effort to turn ....
If I'm on a cruise and using every day ... it is much freer ...