Roller Furling Headsail - Advantages ?

[Poignard]

Erm, I'm of the 'other persuasion'. As Pognard mentioned in post#7, I have that and can instantly douse the sail from the cockpit, whereas I've seen difficulties with furlers. A consideration for the single hander is being able to douse if you've broken a finger. With a halyard, it's a done deal; with a furler it's less easy, and sod's law is more likely to bite than with a jammed halyard.
I stow my genoa on the deck with a sailcover, much the same as the boom cover, and it's left hanked on. To reef is easy, as I had reef points put onto the sail some years ago, but is less easy than with a functioning furler.
I'm not being a luddite, but I do much prefer having hanks, which isn't to say that anyone with a furler is wrong.

If you have any photos of that setup, I'd enjoy seeing them.

 

[Laminar Flow]

I have sailed considerable miles with and without, and to be honest I am still on the fence.

That said, we currently have a furler and it is convenient and easy to work. We have had it jamb though when the line over -rode on the drum while entering port in a F6 - it nearly destroyed the sail and I got to spend an entire day hand stitching it back together. They are convenient when they are working.

There is a loss in performance, there is absolutely no doubt about it and there is a difference between reefing and furling. Furling means that the sail is either in or out, reefing refers to shortening/reducing sail. Modern boats have much smaller jibs and this has a lot to do with the fact that larger sails, certainly ones over 130%, some say 110%, provide a poor shape when reefed.

When we lost the furler mid-ocean we had to rig an emergency stay from which we flew a hank-on 40 year old jib. The power of this old sail was absolutely phenomenal when compared to the rather sophisticated foam luff furler from a well-known loft.

 

[dunedin]

Erm, I'm of the 'other persuasion'. As Pognard mentioned in post#7, I have that and can instantly douse the sail from the cockpit, whereas I've seen difficulties with furlers. A consideration for the single hander is being able to douse if you've broken a finger. With a halyard, it's a done deal; with a furler it's less easy, and sod's law is more likely to bite than with a jammed halyard.
I stow my genoa on the deck with a sailcover, much the same as the boom cover, and it's left hanked on. To reef is easy, as I had reef points put onto the sail some years ago, but is less easy than with a functioning furler.
I'm not being a luddite, but I do much prefer having hanks, which isn't to say that anyone with a furler is wrong.

Re the OPs question …. Have you owned a boat with jib furling, or are these concerns about furling jib issues purely theoretical?

A quick look round any anchorage with cruising boats would suggest 99% plus seem to prefer, and manage successfully with, jib furling.

 

[MADRIGAL]

The only problem I've ever experienced with a furling foresail is that of the turns on the drum collapsing and causing a Jam. The solution, as advised by Hood, was to remove about a third of the core from the furling line at the drum end. This allows the sheath to lay flat on the drum thereby preventing an untidy build-up of line which can lead to a collapse.. Prior to making that modification I had to always ensure that I kept tension on the line when unfurling the foresail. I still do that as a normal practice, but if i happen to release the tension it doesn't result in a jam.
Mike

That’s a nice solution. I changed mine to a narrower diameter furling line, which works a treat, but is harder on the hands.

 

[MADRIGAL]

Given my sailplan, large genoa and small mainsail, reducing the size of the genoa is my first reef!

I occasionally crew for a mate of mine with a boat like that. With a 20 knot wind and the Genoa partially furled, the helm doesn’t feel unbalanced. She doesn’t slow down much, but feels much more under control, with actually less weather helm.

 

[seadog30]

I wouldn't be without it - particularly when single handing. Get close to the destination - a quick pull on the furling line and the headsail is gone. One less thing to worry about.

The only downside is that it slightly shortens the luff so you get a smaller sail area but a trivial difference in most cases.

+ 1
A must have single handed in tight situations.

 

[johnalison]

There are disadvantages, such as the potential for jamming as mentioned by garymalmgren #6, there is a small amount of efficiency when compared to an individually handed on sail, and when reefing the portion of the sail left in use is higher up forestay than a smaller hanked on sail would sit which is not the best position for it to be.
But the advantages that include the ease of handling, not having to go forward to hank on or removed sail, and removing the need to remove and bag the foresail make the furling genoa a real boon, especially when single or short handed.
Providing the roller mechanism is checked and serviced regularly, or unless something catastrophic happens, there should not be any major worry about the system jamming.
A UV strip is essential and a ‘foam luff, as mentioned by dunedin #8 definitely makes sense.
If the boat is not likely to be used for a few weeks then it is probably worth taking the sail off for that sort of period, and certainly if the boat is out use during the Winter definitely take the sail off rather than leave it to the evils of our Winter as many do.
In short Yes a furling foresail is great, and I wouldn’t go back to the individual hank on sails that I had on my last boat.

I ordered a laminate jib and was advised that a UV strip would spoil it, and I should use a jib sock instead. I tried this for several years in the 2000s, when they were very popular on the Continent. Although the sock protected the sail, it caused chafe, which a sailmaker mistook for UV damage. In the end, a UV strip was added nd I saved myself a lot of hassle. I object to coloured strips on aesthetic grounds, but my white one seems adequate.

I agree that servicing the unit is most important, as well as having an efficient routine for furling/unfurling that doesn’t put a stress on the system.

 

[WoodyP]

I was crew on an Oyster 56 across Biscay when the hydraulic furling broke and left us with over half the sail out in a rising gale. It was a bit scary. I have furling on my own MAB, and couldn't manage without. Realise that there are problems possible but on balance the benefits outweigh the risks.

 

[jamie N]

In response to #21 by Poignard, I hope that the genoa cover is clear enough in showing the genoa 'hanked on'.
The genoa downhaul is simply a line from the head to a small block at the tack, then back to the cockpit.

To dunedin in #23, yes I've sailed with a furler, indeed STAKKR originally had one which I tried to get along with, but always felt that it wasn't right for me, so I removed it and flogged it.
Some of the decision was for aesthetics, as the blue UV band caused me offence!

 

[Stemar]

If I were racing with a full crew, hank-on would be a no-brainer. For any other circumstance, a roller is a no brainer. Even in the case of the broken finger, on a 24 footer, I could furl with one hand. On a bigger boat, that's the one time I'd wind it in with a winch.

Disadvantages: Yes, it's less efficient when part furled, though a foam luff will go a long way to counteract that, and it can jam, but getting the halliard tension right and giving it a bit of love from time to time will go a long way to preventing it. I had mine jam once in 18 years, when the halliard was a bit slack, and it became difficult to furl, though not impossible, when the bearings seized. I'd had the boat for 16 years and it wasn't by any means new, so it didn't really owe me anything.

 

[Poignard]

In response to #21 by Poignard, I hope that the genoa cover is clear enough in showing the genoa 'hanked on'.
The genoa downhaul is simply a line from the head to a small block at the tack, then back to the cockpit.
View attachment 126186
To dunedin in #23, yes I've sailed with a furler, indeed STAKKR originally had one which I tried to get along with, but always felt that it wasn't right for me, so I removed it and flogged it.
Some of the decision was for aesthetics, as the blue UV band caused me offence!

Thanks Jamie.
Nice little yacht.

 

[Iliade]

If I was buying today I'd get an endless line type of furler. I'd also be considering in-mast mainsail furling, but that is probably unnecessary on a 24'er.

 

[bedouin]

If I were racing with a full crew, hank-on would be a no-brainer. For any other circumstance, a roller is a no brainer. Even in the case of the broken finger, on a 24 footer, I could furl with one hand. On a bigger boat, that's the one time I'd wind it in with a winch.

Really?

You do know that foils were first developed for racing as they give a performance improvement over hank-on. I doubt if you will find any serious performance boats without foils.

Some furlers have the ability to remove the drum to allow you to use the full luff if you want to

 

[DownWest]

My little boat has a downhaul through the piston hanks, as going forward is tricky. A simple furler, not reefing foil, has always been on the toduit list.
Current bigger tidy up model has a Plastimo 609S in good nick, just needs the bearings servicing. Def keeping it. Being able to tickle the 'throttle' is very handy.