Roller furling foresail

[boaterbaz]

I am considering fitting a roller reefing foresail to my Evoloution 26 as I now spend more time cruising and find the twin luff grooves a pain in the butt (bring back sail hanks). My concern is the smaller sail I have to fit as the furling gear means a) the tack of the sail will be about 300mm from the deck and b) the clew has to cut high to allow the sail to furl without fouling around the drum. Will the boat be underpowered in light say sub 10 knots of wind. Has anyone got thoughts or better still experience of my problem.

 

[doug748]

I have a masthead rig 32 footer with the typical 1970's large genoa, so I do miss a lot of light airs sail area with roller reefing. However it is easier to tack shorthanded and still works well enough in lighter conditions - forward vison is improved too. With an easily driven hull you just miss out on the racing edge. Your Evolution should miss the lost area even less than my middle/heavyweight. I have flown a full hoist genoa (even with the drum in place) but , in practice, it was an experiment I nver bothered to repeat.

If I had fractional rig I might consider hanked on sails....but the ease of roller reefing would, even then, probably win the day.