In mast reefing, Centaur.

[sailorman]

I have fitted and maintained many of these systems and my general opinion is this:
Add on systems are useless, and dedicated masts (mechanically)work ok when they are new but once the bearings have worn and the sail has stretch they are more effort than they are worth. This is even more of a problem with vertical battens which as the leech of the sail stretches the battens are no longer vertical and therefore take up extra space in the housing or can shatter resulting in no way of furling / unfurling sail, i have heard of many people having to burn out sail at sea just to drop the sail.

The loss of performance is also noticable as sails have little draught, zero or negative roach, and mast cannot be bent.

Far and away the best solution for you is to go single line reefing but look to spend a it on it, low friction blocks, specialist boom (i personally prefer z-spars setup over more expensive models). I would also go for a decent vang (the barton solid fibreglass one works very well on boats of this size)
Also you should look to get lazyjacks and a stack pack fitted.
You can operate from the cockpit with ease and maintain all of the performance of slab reefing.

#3

 

[Moonbeam]

Thankyou, Stuey. yes, so many expert views that are quite biased and dont answer the question. (I too may have been guilty of this.) I am interested in your mast as i believe Selden dont do add on reefing, so do you have a new mast incorporating the reefing gear? I was thinking about this route.

To be honest I agree with the view that the boat is not really worth it, especially as I wont have all that long, so may go with a new slab reef single line reefing boom.

Still interested in your set up.

Hi. Correction, both my boom AND the furling mast by Z-spars (got it in my head the mast was Selden) So full marks to Z-spars, I see on their website they have not changed the design which must mean the got it right first time. My set up is 8 years old and no problems or replacement parts needed other than changing the nylon sheaves for alloy ones in the boom. The Sanders maxiroach mainsail is also 8 years old and no bagginess and we have done a fair bit of sailing as did the previous owner.

http://www.zsparsuk.com/furlingmasts.htm

Apparently if the gear does wear, it can be removed from the mast and sent to z-spars for refurbishment, no need to take the whole mast down.

Regards

Stuart

 

[GrahamM376]

To be honest I agree with the view that the boat is not really worth it, especially as I wont have all that long, so may go with a new slab reef single line reefing boom.

Converting a Centaur to 2 line reefing with the existing roller boom is simple enough and far cheaper than a new boom and single line reefing, I did it on ours. Barton did/still do? a kit but, all you need are some turning blocks and jammers/clutches and maybe a winch on the mast. A kicker will be needed whichever method you go for, to replace the claw.

 

[Moonbeam]

Hi Jellylegs, I've sent you a private message, Stuey