Jeanneau 45.2 vs. Beneteau 473 for retired couple in Med

[Tranona]

I find that the full battened mainsail on my boat is easier to handle that it is to furl the genoa on some occasions. If I had a choice of swapping my full batten main for inmast, or fitting an electric furler, I would choose the latter.

Yes, but you have a masthead rig with a big genoa - another negative feature for an easily handled boat. Your possible solution of an electric furler is right. However if you had a fractional rig with a 105% jib and good Harken reefing line gear like on my new Bavaria most of your problems would go away - of course not a retrofit option, but that is how the design trend is going to reflect the needs of today's buyers. My Bavaria 33 is same weight and sail area as the 37 it replaced, but I am amazed how much easier sail handling is - not that the 37 was particularly difficult. Indeed it was one of the key factors that swung our decision to go new rather than an older boat.

 

[doug748]

I find that the full battened mainsail on my boat is easier to handle that it is to furl the genoa on some occasions. If I had a choice of swapping my full batten main for inmast, or fitting an electric furler, I would choose the latter.

Well quite, not everybody wants to turn their boat into a motorsailer. One of the advantages of your rig is easy mainsail handling.

 

[ashtead]

Having sailed Bavarias both with and without in mast furling i have never had a problem dropping a fully batemed main however some charter boat in mast furlers after much use always seem to leave a lot to be desired leaving aside the smaller sail area. That said I can see the convenience for the more mature sailor of not having to zip up the stack pack so it is a deeply personal choice. I tend to remain unconvinced but clearly many prefer the convenience and accept the risk of jamming and higher cost of system for perceived convenience on winching in and out on a Furler. On a new boat I am sure they work fine but I just question if on an older Jen or Ben they have the same reliability .

 

[Tranona]

Having sailed Bavarias both with and without in mast furling i have never had a problem dropping a fully batemed main however some charter boat in mast furlers after much use always seem to leave a lot to be desired leaving aside the smaller sail area. That said I can see the convenience for the more mature sailor of not having to zip up the stack pack so it is a deeply personal choice. I tend to remain unconvinced but clearly many prefer the convenience and accept the risk of jamming and higher cost of system for perceived convenience on winching in and out on a Furler. On a new boat I am sure they work fine but I just question if on an older Jen or Ben they have the same reliability .

See post#41 above. In mast has come a long way in the last few years as has rig design to address the need for easy handling. Risk of jamming is almost non existent if you follow the instructions. There is a choice of different types of sail to improve performance if that is important to you. On a new boat in mast is cheaper than a good fully battened sail. On my boat it was £1000 more than the basic sail but over £3000 cheaper than fully battened with all the extra gear and rigging needed. Performance sails for the in mast were about the same price.

The smaller jibs used now have less need for furling to reduce sail area as the main is reduced first - and infinitely variable rather than losing 25% of its area in one go. As I said earlier the Harken gear for the furling line much improves that aspect of handling the jib.

Dropping a mainsail is only part of the handling problems of fully battened sails as two of the other posters (with experience of them and choosing now to buy in mast), particularly on the size of boat under consideration. What is easy on a 36' is not on on a 45-50'. Equally difficult to see how reefing a fully battened sail that size can possibly be easier than in mast.

Just describe what the two different processes are and you need a paragraph for one and a sentence for the other!

 

[Tranona]

Well quite, not everybody wants to turn their boat into a motorsailer. One of the advantages of your rig is easy mainsail handling.

So, 90% of HRs over 40' are motorsailers? That is the %age that are fitted with in mast.

Describe the process of reefing a fully battened sail, then describe the process of reefing an in mast. How many words do you need for each? And how much extra gear?

Reefing a fully battened main with lines led aft may be easier than other reefing methods, but you could never claim it is easier than in mast (or in boom).

 

[geem]

All this talk about inmast mainsails being as good as fully battened is crazy. Good needs defining. In Mast may be easy but who ever said good was easy? Put three reefs in my fully battened mainsail and it sets perfectly. Try that on inmast and I guarantee poor sail shape.
There is no arguement for inmast that would convince me to move away from fully battened. We sail a 44ft yacht where sails are big and we reef at the mast. We have a full set of cars on the sail so the sail is friction free. We can have a reef in in about a minute. What price for reliability and performance? Inmast is a step too far for me although I know it suits many.

 

[bobthecook]

I have a 45 ft boat when I went over to in mast. I had the mast 2 metres higher and boom .500 m longer, with a masthead rig.Although there was a lack of drive from the new main sail I think the larger headsail has made the boat faster overall. I saw 10.2kts in 20 kts of wind, close reached. I have never seen that before with the fully battered one This was in the Aegean,
Do I miss the fully battered sail? Yes for the perceived performance loss No for the ease of handling.

 

[mlthomas]

Answering the question, both are great are great boats, I would go for the Benni (bias answer though)

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I have a 45 ft boat when I went over to in mast. I had the mast 2 metres higher and boom .500 m longer, with a masthead rig.Although there was a lack of drive from the new main sail I think the larger headsail has made the boat faster overall. I saw 10.2kts in 20 kts of wind, close reached. I have never seen that before with the fully battered one This was in the Aegean,
Do I miss the fully battered sail? Yes for the perceived performance loss No for the ease of handling.

What boat do you have and what prompted you to change the design parameters, did you consider vertical battens and what in mast system have you chosen. Personally if I was to change from slab reefing I would have gone to in boom and if I was changing the mast would have gone the whole hog with carbon mast and boom.

 

[bobthecook]

What boat do you have and what prompted you to change the design parameters, did you consider vertical battens and what in mast system have you chosen. Personally if I was to change from slab reefing I would have gone to in boom and if I was changing the mast would have gone the whole hog with carbon mast and boom.

14 m Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45. Everyone has different opinions and carbon fibre was too expensive for an AWB. A SparCraft mast came available with a quantum sail at a price I could not turn down.