older in mast furling systems?

[neil1967]

I am looking at buying a (used) yacht to liveaboard and possibly circumnavigate. My preference is for slab reefing due to its simplicity and sailability; however some of the yachts I am considering that are otherwise suitable frequently come with in-mast furling. I have often used modern in-mast furling (eg Selden from 2007/8) without any problems at all in the med - are older in mast furling systems (eg Kemp from late 80's, as fitted to Oyster yachts), likely to be any less reliable or more prone to jamming than their modern equivalents, or has in-mast technology not developed that much?

Regards

Neil

 

[Pete7]

Neil, we have a 1989 in mast reefing main, other than one jam when we were getting used to it, its been fine for the past 4 years. One thing we have noticed is whilst the genoa grows green marks during the year the main being nicely rolled up inside the mast stays clean and is in much better condition now than the main. Both are about 10 years old.

Pete

 

[Leighb]

I have a Halmatic 30 with original 1980 Proctor inmast system. Once I had replaced the original horrendously baggy mainsail, furling and unfurling have been very easy.

There are some "tricks" that need to be learnt, the chief one being to make sure you that you are the correct tack when furling so that the sail slides in easily rather than dragging round the edge of the mast slot. The angle between the boom and the mast is also important.

The one obvious difference with modern systems is that the slot in the mast is much wider leading to some wind noise when moored up with the wind on the quarter, also the reefing drum is much smaller diameter so a thinner line has to be used than appears the norm on modern systems that I have seen.