Self furling foresails

[Guest]

As I sail single handed. I would like to operate the forsails from the cockpit. Modern self -furling seems to require a new genoa plus furling kit and costs around £1,000. Is there no system which can use my current genoa and 2 jibs, which are in good condition?

 

[Guest]

Plastimo ones can accept hanks with sliders.

 

[Guest]

If all you want is FURLING (rather than REEFING)then Whykeham - Martin gear of appropriate size should do the trick at quite reasonable cost.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jim, Not sure if furling or reefing is the correct expression as I have never "reefed" a Jib. My only experience is a Drascombe Longboat which had a Genoa which could be " furled" down to what was a small jib. Thanks for your tip.

 

[Guest]

The plastimo sliders are very good at converting and hank-on jib however, with the No1 you will still probably have to have the sail modified as the tack on the roller-reefing is in the drum not the deck and so will be about a foot higher. This is why most people have a new Genoa made, it's not very cost-effective to have the old one modified.

 

[Guest]

Unless I have got the wrong end of the stick...

What you want to know is whether you can use your existing sails in a roller furling system. We also had sails that were too good to discard but wanted to have roller furling for the genoa. In Trinidad we simply gave the genoas to Ocean Sails International (I'm sure any sail company can do it, anywhere in the world, though) and they removed the strip with all the hanks on it, replacing it with the special tape that includes the right width of rounded edge to fit the extrusion (this varies, so get your system first, or at least decide which one and find out what size will fit). I forget, offhand, the exact length of out roller furling, I think it's 16 metres, and the cost was US$254, including tape, for each sail. On a sail with another few years in it, it's worth investing that kind of money, as far as we're concerned. Of course it probably depends where you get it done how much it costs but it might be worth contacting sailmakers within sensible reach of your whereabouts and enquiring. Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Re: Unless I have got the wrong end of the stick...

I agree. I had a similar issue 5 years ago, got Jeckylls of Wroxham to trim off the luff to an appropriate length (to ensure that the new length was exactly right for the new Plastimo furling kit) and attach a new bolt rope and tapes to fit the new gear. It gave me a further 4 years at a fifth the cost of a new genoa. The down side is that the sail tended not to set very well unless fully unfurled. Still, it was OKish