In-mast furler weight?

[purplerobbie]

What sort of weight difference would there be between a standard mast and one with an in-mast furler?
The mast is 12meters (ish)
what sort of effect would it have on stability? It’s going to be a lot more weight aloft.

 

[Tranona]

Depends. If it is an add on to aan existing mast then the increase in weight aloft can be significant. If the boat was designed for in mast then probably very little different although with the sail up and furled there is likely to be a small increase in weight aloft compared with a conventional sail dropped to the boom. Designers know that the boat will have an in mast and take this into account when designing the boat and the statistics for stability will be approved to meet the RCD. There is no difference in the stability curves for my boat between the in mast and conventional version.

The "myth" that in mast is somehow less stable dates back over 40 years when people started adding furling gear, radar, in mast etc to boats that were never designed for it (and often had poor stability anyway). So the idea just gets repeated until for some it becomes a universal truth.

Every single designer and builder of cruising yachts offers in mast so I guess they would have worked out the implications of it by now. For example over 90% of the over 40' HRs designed by German Frers have in mast rigs. Does not seem to affect their ocean cruising capability and reputation.

Out of interest, when did you last hear of a boat capsizing because it had in mast?

 

[Baggywrinkle]

The bags are full of water .... imagine how much they weigh in comparison to a bit of aluminium furler and a sail......