Roller Furling Headsail - Advantages ?

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Jim@sea

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I have never sailed on a yacht which has had a Roller Furling Headsail so I dont know the advantages.
Our 24ft sailing boat has a broken aluminium mast and is being replaced with a new one.
Whilst it is at the Shipwrights we have the opportunity of adding a Roller Furling Headsail.
I believe originally this boat had one and I imagine it was broken and not replaced due to cost.
So, are there advantages of having one, is it the sort of thing where once you have one you would not do without ?
Any advice gratefully received,
even if Don't Buy Such & Such etc.
Thanks.
 
I have a 24foot yacht with a roller furling headsail. (Plastimo 609) It’s great, particularly for sailing single handed, which I do quite a bit.

I still take the headsail off when I leave the boat, rather than leave it on to shorten its life and get battered by UV, although I suspect for most people who have roller furling headsails the ability to leave it on is one of the biggest attractions.

If you have a masthead rig/ big headsail you will appreciate the ability to reduce the size of it when the wind gets up, without having to change to a smaller sail.

All depends on the type of sailing you do, and who you sail with I guess. There is a performance compromise (not noticeable for cruising) and cost of course. But personally I would recommend it.
 
Apart from the ability to quickly adjust sail area (in balance with reefs in the main) to suit the wind as it varies when under way ,from the comfort of the cockpit,it is also very handy as you close with your destination port /channel,when you can use the jib alone and douse it pretty instantly and securely .So effectively self stowing without a trip to the foredeck and leaving you to turn attention to navigation/the engine/fenders or whatever .
 
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.
 
bluerm166 said:
Apart from the ability to quickly adjust sail area (in balance with reefs in the main) to suit the wind as it varies when under way ,from the comfort of the cockpit,it is also very handy as you close with your destination port /channel,when you can use the jib alone and douse it pretty instantly and securely .So effectively self stowing without a trip to the foredeck and leaving you to turn attention to navigation/the engine/fenders or whatever .
Click to expand...
It is incredibly handy when single-handed, even on a boat as small as a Wayfarer. Any time you need to reduce sail area in a hurry, it can be done in seconds - whether you’re sailing in to the pontoon, or coping with a sudden increase in wind speed as you round a headland. Like the OP suggests, having had it, I wouldn’t want to be with out it.
 
So, are there advantages of having one, is it the sort of thing where once you have one you would not do without ?

Yes. There are many advantages.
First the well known disadvantages are:
can jam at the most unfortunate times..
in reefed / partially furled condition, they are not as efficient as a properly cut jib.
they are originally expensive.
err, err, that's about it (from my perspective)

The advantages.
uncleat the furling line and haul on the sheet and your foresail is ready to go.
don't need to be stowed below in a sail bag.
can be unfurled to any size.
all sail handling can be done singlehanded from the cockpit.
release the sheet and haul on the furling line and she is packed away.

I have a 25 footer with a plasimo furler.
Cleaning and caring for the furler is part of my yearly maintenance.


gary
 
Jim@sea said:
….. is it the sort of thing where once you have one you would not do without ?
Click to expand...

YES.
And if possible, get a “foam luff” fitted on any new sail, as will set much better when reefed.

PS. Taking the sail off when leaving the boat might be viable on a 24 foot boat, but otherwise a lot of unnecessary hassle - the UV strip is there to prevent UV issues, and tightly rolled with three wraps of sheets (plus a secondary lashing on drum if winter or leaving on mooring) should be entirely secure.
 
We cruised for over fifteen years before I succumbed to fitting one of these new-fangled gadgets on my then new Sadler 29. I took some pride in doing efficient sail-changes, but in reality they weren't very good and bouncing around off Zeebrugge was not fun at all. What surprised me was the performance advantage I got with the furler. Although I lost a little from what would have been the foot of the genoa, this was more than made up for by always having the right amount of sail out. Previously, it was normal to set a No 2 or smaller if it looked as if a reef would be needed, often leaving me wallowing around with too little sail. A padded luff went a long way to correcting the shape of a part-furled sailed.

Technically, a furling jib may not be perfect, but what works in practice is what matters. Small boats may need to take into account the greater weight aloft with furling gear, which is presumably taken into account with modern designs.
 
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.
 
garymalmgren said:
So, are there advantages of having one, is it the sort of thing where once you have one you would not do without ?

Yes. There are many advantages.
First the well known disadvantages are:
can jam at the most unfortunate times..
in reefed / partially furled condition, they are not as efficient as a properly cut jib.
they are originally expensive.
err, err, that's about it (from my perspective)

The advantages.
uncleat the furling line and haul on the sheet and your foresail is ready to go.
don't need to be stowed below in a sail bag.
can be unfurled to any size.
all sail handling can be done singlehanded from the cockpit.
release the sheet and haul on the furling line and she is packed away.

I have a 25 footer with a plasimo furler.
Cleaning and caring for the furler is part of my yearly maintenance.


gary
Click to expand...
Another advantage is that if the wind decides to come and go it is easy to unfurl the sail and assist the engine. I've only had a jam a couple of times in over 20 plus years and the last one was the sail was let out to quickly and doesn't allow the furling line to wrap nicely.
 
Jim@sea said:
So, are there advantages of having one, is it the sort of thing where once you have one you would not do without ?
Click to expand...
Advantages, not getting soaked when changing jib.

I now refuse to sail on a boat without a furler. I am way too old to get a soaking.
 
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
 
I use mine as a furler, not a reefer - but I still think it's a great bit of kit. Like everything else, though, it needs a bit of maintenance every now and then.
 
Saves the heartbreak of ruining a new sail by cramming it, as flexible as tinplate, below decks where it fills the whole cabin whilst dousing it with seawater.

For me, hanked on is ok for day sailing/racing.

.
 
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.
 
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