Replacing jib furler - Rustler 36

Minchsailor

Minchsailor

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Boat is a Rustler 36, fitted with Harken from new (28 years) which is becoming 'time expired' (boat has been around the world twice); stiff to use, foil has slight kink, aluminium castings corroded where stainless steel screws have been used. Genoa is area c38m2. 8mm forestay. Means to tension the forestay is a must have.

Looking at replacements, both Harken and Furlex seem to be silly prices, undoubtedly due to the £/$/SOK exchange rate.

Profurl may be possible??, price looks OK (even though it is from France), have seen another R36 with one fitted.

On the other hand I was recently talking to the owner of a Contessa 32 in the yard who has a Sailspar on his boat. As he is quite well travelled - trans Atlantic single handed, cruised Greenland and NE Canada, northern Norway, Iceland - I must suppose it has worked OK for him, and the price looks comparatively reasonable.

What is the collected wisdom of the Forum?
 
Depends how long you intend to keep the boat, if you divide the Harken price by 28 it might be good value. I have Profurl just now but while it is still serviceable I would prefer the Furlex I have had in the past. I had a problem with getting the sail past one of the joints in the Profurl foil, doing work up the mast is not too bad but trying to repair a joint while hanging 2/3 of the way up the forestay can be very uncomfortable.
 
pvb said:
Furlex is a good choice for most people.
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At the So'ton Boat Show on Friday talked to several suppliers/agents about possible replacements for a Facnor system on a 35 ft Jeanneau that has had one new drum unit and two new top swivels - this on a 14 year old boat. Each change was more than £1,000 ! The next time something fails it won't be a Facnor replacement.

Facnor claim their new design is longer lasting, fully sealed and heavily greased. Their latest top swivel (saw it out of the box last year) is so heavily greased that it was stiff to turn before fitted. It has actually made the system HARDER to furl or unfurl - though unlike the old (second) top swivel that jammed it does rotate.

Profurl are now part of the same organisation as Facnor, though they do have a 10 year warranty. I confess to being dubious about warranty - if it is stiff but still works with a lot of effort is it faulty? That's where I am with Facnor.

Neither Facnor nor Profurl have replaceable bearings, unless you have your own engineering shop. Few riggers will attempt the job.

Selden Furlex have very visible open S/S bearings - guaranteed for 2 years, though the company agent rep insisted they were good for 20. He claimed he'd never heard of them having to be changed, or how difficult it was.

I couldn't afford Harken, though they looked rather good.

Sailspar looks good on the web, though I didn't see them at the Boat Show. No prices online.
 
We installed a secondhand Sailspar gear on our Shamrock.
It must have been 30 yrs old when we sold the boat a few years ago.
Excellent trouble free furling .I recommend them to customers wanting a rugged gear .
They are easily serviced and forestay replacement is no problem compared to some gears.
 
john_q said:
Have a look at Alado see https://www.alado.com/ a new solution, much simpler, less moving pars and less money. Not connected but impressed when I saw one
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Alado do seem to have a good reputation, very simple, similar to the old Colnebrook furling gear but I don't have any personal experience.
I do however rate the Sailspar highly - I had one on my previous boat and it was excellent - I did add a clutch on the furling rope which made it a lot easier, a Rutgerson as it was the only one at the time that you could dismantle and insert the endless furling line. ( I believe Spinlock now have one)
 
Couldn’t, speak too highly of Sailspar, we fitted the system ten years ago and still loving it. Nice people to deal with as well.
 
zoidberg said:
I don't s'pose people are very keen on Plastimo...... :rolleyes:
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I've got one. The old one was well-used when I bought the boat and lasted me over 10 years before a bearing seized and wore the hole it fitted in out with no real warning. TBH, that could well have been my fault as, in my ignorance, I'd greased the tufnol bearings several years ago. The new one works well but, as it's only Plastimerde, as everyone knows, it will obviously fail catastrophically next week.
 
Stemar said:
The new one works well but, as it's only Plastimerde, as everyone knows, it will obviously fail catastrophically next week.
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That was one of the beauties of Beaulieu! The only 'gambling casino' I've ever gone back to, year after year.....
 
When we bought the boat it had an old profurl. It's a 40ft ketch with a huge genoa that comes almost all the way back to the cockpit. Over the years the furler got less and less keen to play ball. This culminated in us having quite a frightening experience in the dark in 40kts in the Moray Firth, having to winch the furler (I know, never do it) or destroy the sail, even with only a tiny scrap of it out.

Our local rigger took the profurl apart and ordered some more bearings, which arrived and, packed with grease, were pretty much as stiff as the old ones. Meanwhile the ancient Harken Mk IV sitting on his bench whizzed around freely.

There seem to be 2 main types of furler - those with sealed, grease-lubricated bearings, and those with dry bearings (eg. Harken). In my experience (see above) the greased ones (like profurl) have numerous lips and seals which add to the friction of the greased bearings themselves, so that no matter how easy the furling-line run is, it's still almost impossible to furl in anything but calm conditions.

Fast forward to our recent trip down the UK and across Biscay: the Harken MkIV can be easily furled, by hand, downwind, by my wife. The advice on the Harken website says that whenever the sail is off, pour some fresh-water into the bearings to clear out any salt accumulation.
 
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