Help! Facnor and other headsail furlers.

[AndrewB]

I really must replace my ailing headsail furler ASAP.

Yesterday at SIBS I went round as many as possible before exhaustion set in. Schaefer, Furlex, Reckmann, Harken systems, all looking good and all costing around £2,300 for my boat. And Facnor, which didn't seem much different, but at about £1,600. (All these prices include VAT, forestay and fittings, and headsail mods, and assume a DIY installation).

I want good for long-distance cruising, but this is an awful lot of dosh. I'd really appreciate all views or experiences of any of these, specially whether the Facnor is up to it.

 

[vyv_cox]

My Furlex failed (for the third time) on my summer cruise this year, almost causing the forestay to fail also. We were in Calais at the time, where we were put in touch with Bleu Marine(?) at Dunkerque. A rigger from there advised us and we subsequently bought a Facnor, fitted at Dunkerque on our return.

His opinion was that the foil bearings in the Furlex impose a lot of torque onto the forestay, causing it to fail prematurely. He told us that he had replaced very many of them due to both their own unreliability (which has been my experience) and because of forestay damage.

Facnor have bearings only at the foil joints, not throughout the foil length. It is a very robust and simple furler but does not have the feature that rolls the luff centre before the head and foot, as Furlex does. This may mean that pointing ability with a reefed sail is reduced but I have not yet been able to test this.

Facnor are fitted as standard to Jens and Bavs but this may not have anything to do with the performance of the furler! However, 'our' rigger stated that the Facnor is the most reliable furler that he knows.

The price to us at Dunkerque was about 1300 GBP fitted, from memory, so it could pay you to have it done over there. Incidentally, the marina staff at Calais were excellent, putting themselves out considerably in our interest. The harbourmaster winched the rigger up our mast several times, a job for which he had all the right muscles!

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[tillergirl]

Have a look at Sailspar, Tower Street, Brightlingsea, Essex. A single line system, good quality, variety of sizes I believe and oh yes, it's British.

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[jimi]

I've got a Facnor(Ben) and the only problems I've had so far is

1)halyard wrap as lead is not at a sharp enough angle.
2)Top bit jamming when the new genoa was fitted

Got a foam luff fitted in the luff to help with the reefing bagginess problem.


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[bob_tyler]

Try Z Spars. Their foil is 1 piece, no joins.
I had one fitted to my Invicta 26 earlier this year. So far no snags or problems and very much cheaper than mentioned above.

Make sure you use an experienced fitter, I'm certain that is half the battle.

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[Mudplugger]

Had Sailspar on last boat, Luff length about 39', In fifteen years never had a problem, Single control Line makes life very easy, and sails set well when going to windward..... only maintenance wash with fresh water on a monthly basis.

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[sailorman]

i have had a Harken system for 3 yrs with no probs & would thoughly recomend it. (only one small defect due to the rigger not using "locktite" on the drum / foil joint).

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[chas]

I bought a new Rotostay for this season. It was easy to fit and I got lots of help from the manufacturer. No problems in use. As I bought a furler/gennie package, the price of the furler was considerably reduced.

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[Birdseye]

bought a profurl b35 system through the lbs three years ago. price inc 8mm forestay of 12m was about £1k. engineering is sound, quality is excellent and the set up has worked faultlessly.

one issue to have in mind is the effort required to operate. if you want the fair sex to operate the reefing (whilst you look decorative!) then get the greatest ratio of diameter of reefing drum to diameter of foil. The profurl is good in this respect.

Given a second chance, I would buy the same make again. Which is more than can be said for many of my boat show buys!

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[AndrewB]

Many thanks for the help.

On this basis I think I'll go with the Facnor. (Thanks Jimi and Vyv). The other make of those I originally listed that has attracted the most positive reaction (elsewhere) is Schaefer, but it is expensive.

It was helpful to get the suggestions of other makes. Either I missed these at SIBS or they had to be ruled out for other reasons.



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