in mast or not ?

[alanhanson]

Just ordered new boat at the boat show , we are used to inmast reefing & sail two up a lot which makes things easy.
the new boat has a single line reefing system all led back.does anyone have any experience of these systems on a beneteau?
I prefer the idea of the battened sail , but i am worried about reefing because of the size of the boat.
i also like the idea that she will point a little better with the standard sail .
any comments greatfully received thanks alan

 

[bob_tyler]

Did you see the article in YM on "in boom" reefing. Very interesting and certain advantages over "In mast". Full length battens, full roach etc and weight when stowed much lower.

Anyone got any thoughts, comments or experience?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Not

If in-mast goes wrong, it goes wrong, and the sail is stuck, half in, half out. And don't believe what the rep tells you, they do go wrong (happened to me twice on charter boats)

With slab reefing there's less to go wrong in the first place, and if it does go gnarly, at least you've still got the option of dropping the sail.

 

[chrisc]

Yes but it is possible to have full length battens (vertical)
and roach on the in mast furling. do take the point about the weight
being higher.last boat had furling on the boom worked ok but hardly used it
and usually sailed with too much sail up.present boat has in mast and we are forever
playing with the amount of sail we have up it is so easy..........hasn't stuck yet but if
it does surely its easier to tuck that away than a sail that is fixed to boom ?

 

[chas]

I saw a Canadian ketch recently with what appeared to be "inmast reefing" ouside the mast. The sail was furled on a rotating boom(?) parallel to the mast but set just aft of it, exposed. This seemed sensible as it would be easier to clear jams but I asm not sure how it would affect the performance as there must be a gap of about 4 in between the mast and the luff.

 

[bob_tyler]

If you get a jam halfway up the mast there is a real problem. Halfway along the boom, however, easy to reach and sort.

 

[billmacfarlane]

Re: Not

I take a somewhat jaundiced view of in mast furling. I chartered a Beneteau this summer with it fitted and not having used the system before was looking forward to trying it. I hated it. I has to unfurl it from the coach roof by hand as there was too much friction in the system. The only time I managed to get about half of it out the damn thing jammed. When you finally get it out you can't get a decent sail shape. The other Beneteau in the flotilla that had the same system had similar problems to me. There's a relatively new system with vertical battens being advertised but I'd be a bit cautious about having those battens rolled up inside the mast. I much prefer slab or single line reefing. It's not that much trouble to put in or shake out a reef and there's less to go wrong.

 

[vyv_cox]

Re: Not

A friend was looking at boats for his small sailing school. He found that the additional weight of in-mast furling so reduced righting moment that it reduced the classification of some boats from 0 to 1, which I think is Ocean to Coastal. He stuck to slab reefing.

 

[ChrisJ]

Re: ANY advantages??

The general feeling here seems to be "don't touch it with a barge pole".

If that is the case, why is it still being sold and fitted?? If it is not being used by the cross section of the sailing population here, who is it that still uses it??

(And does that mean that the people who post here are non-representative of the sailing population?? In which case, what about other advice given here!!)

Cheers, Chris

 

[billmacfarlane]

Re: ANY advantages??

Looking around my local marina I would guess that there are around 5% of boats fitted with in mast reefing. The responses here seem to be mostly from the 95% of people who have not got it fitted but have tried it on an ad hoc basis so their views are very representative.

 

[chrisc]

Re: ANY advantages??

seems to have a big advantage as far as me and my wife are concerned
never have to leave the cockpit and it is very easy to adjust the size of the
sail ,average time between saying take the sails in to actually achieving it must
average about 20 seconds -i pull the genoa roller reef in while my wife does
the main . Slab reefing and dropping the mainsail is just on a different world-
three years ago I hadn't seen a roller reef main now at least around this coast
W Sweden ,there seem to be a large number -even 10-20 year old boats with
new masts and sails.The boats that do not have it are those with more than two
crew.

 

[andrewhopkins]

How it works and how to use it.

Difficult to explain how it works without a diagram but basically inside the boom is a pulley which is free to move up and down. Attached to it is the reef at the leach of the sail and through the pulley is the reef at the luff of the sail.

When you pull this "single line" from the cockpit it pulls the luff down and as it pulls the pulley towards the mast, it also pulls the leach down. Make sense ?

It is VERY easy to use, just make sure the wind is forward of the beam, put the topping lift back on, drop the main halyard a bit and pull in the reefing line. once tight, pull up the main again and let off the topping lift.

Before you leave the marina, you can easily put it on before even hoisting the sail.

 

[robp]

Re: Not

As a matter of interest I would like to know the actual weight that the furling spar inside the mast adds high up. I know any weight up there is not desirable but I can't see how it alone would change categories. Unless of course one is taking the weight of the sail as well, most of which one would expect to be hoisted anyway, in mast or slab reef.

 

[robp]

Re: Not

That kind of jamming is because the sail is shot. When it is "bagged", it's surplus material jams together with the leach in the slot. I just spent a season doing just that.

Agree about the shape but when you are alone it's a boon.

The vertical battens however appear to roll in and out very nicely.

 

[johndf]

Re: How it works and how to use it.

I have in mast furling on my Jeanneau 34. No jamming problems whatsoever so far after 2 seasons. The main drawback in my view is the lack of roach, but maybe vertical battens would cure that. It is remarkably easy to use - no good for a racing boat, but other than some reduction in performance (I don't have the vertical battens), it seems very good to me. Next time I would go for the vertical battens, or preferably the new in-boom reefing, which avoids the jamming problem - if it jams, just drop it like a conventional main.

 

[cynthia]

Re: ANY advantages??

Been using a Maxi Roach, fully battened in mast system this season. Brilliant. So easy to furl / unfurl it's unbelievable. What's more it has given us back the power usually lost because of inmast because the battens increased roach. The sail sets well and has never jammed. Whilst I usually furl it from the mast winch - it's brilliant to be able to put away all the sails without leaving the cockpit when the need arises. Very easy to reef down in a hurry too.

Hope the new boat comes up to expectations! Happy sailing.
The system is new, so so far absolutely no jams, tangles or snags over the 1500 miles we've covered so far.