Which replacement roller reefing

Conachair

Conachair

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The time has come to replace my roller reefing. Which one though? System at the moment is furlex, which I'm actually very happy with, it's just old and knackered but as a device it seems like a good design and reliable. Boat is 33' steel ebbtide, permamently cruising so whatever new one is it needs to be solid. Also heard good things about harkin. Any suggestions, tales to tell?
 
Small sample, and 8 years...phooey. I've recently replaced a hard-worked 20-year old Nemo system in good working order with another, slighty larger, from the same source. Easy to fit, too, unlike Furlex which (see Scuttlebutt thread) IMO -- excuse tautology -- is over-engineered and can be a pig to fit.

I'm far from saying that Nemo is better than anything else. It isn't. But it's soundly made, from good materials, with a sound foil -- none of which counts for much if it's not well-installed and above all secure against halyard wrap. The latter two points are to my mind crucial for any system. I'd be inclined to steer clear of the cheapest makes, but a lot of the rest is just snobbery.
 
My brother's 9 year old Furlex has just had a big bit replaced under warranty. I don't know how long the warranty lasts, but I thought 9 years was quite good.
 
I've had two Furlex 200 systems replaced under warranty. The third set was heading for replacement but I sold the boat.

Current boat has a Facnor. Not very impressive, a combination of poor design aggravated by bad installation.
 
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Not so sure about continous line, how do you find it? Know if the system will fit over a turnbuckle & norseman?

Thanks

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The continuous line is great. You never get any of the hassle of "potentially" having to "feed" the line onto the dream. Added to that it's circa 10mm multiplait that is nice to hold. Dunno about the fitting bit of it as mine was already on....
 
Having a pull the string job on Jissel and used a continuous line system on a friend's boat, I was surprised to find I didn't much like the continuous job. On mine I can get my weight behind the pull to get the rollup started and take great armfulls of string to wind the genny away quickly. I couldn't conveniently do either with the continuous system. This may just have been the way it was set up, but I suspect that if there's enough slack slopping around to make it easy to heave on, it may remove one of the main advantages of the continuous system, which is to avoid having loads of string flopping about.

OTOH, my furler drum is barely enough to take all the line needed to allow my genny to roll up completely in a bit of a blow when it rolls on the foil really tightly. For some reason the continuous system's drum never did seem to fill up

You pays yer money...
 
Still not convinced i'm 'fraid. I sail single handed and normally take a wrap with the furling line round a winch to take the strain and stand in centre of cockpit easing jib sheet as i reef, do you have to lean out of the cockpit a bit to reach the line in continious line setup? ? I assume it runs down the stanchions similar to a single line setup.
 
i think an important thing is how long the producer guarantees to produces spare parts. I have a Reckmann, which is very good. Last year I was told (by the Dutch representative of Reckmann) to be very careful with the aluminum profile, as this type is not produced any more. So: one profile part damaged means total replacement. A friend of mine actually had to do this: he had a Goiot system (also:very good) that had to be replaced completely after the damage done to one part of the profile during winter storage.
 
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