Automated Main Sail

[delmarrey]

I have the EZ slide track on my mast. Head into wind I can get my main up (46') to within a couple feet of the head just by hand. And when I release the main sheet she'll fall right in to the lazy jacks. No fuss, no must!. Reefing I just ease off on the main halyard, pull in on the reefing rig and tighten back up. This is all with a loose-footed main.

The differance IS performance. Down wind a boom furl spills off a lot of good air. On a close haul a mast furl loses it's proper shape and spills off air. In light air this is real important, if your going a long way.

These convience items are great for day sails but for me PERSONALLY I like to catch every bit of air that is available in light winds. Otherwise I'd just go fishing ~~~~~~~~~~~><)))º> IMHO To each his own!

[roverhi]

There is IN-boom reefing/furling and the antique roller reefing. The in-boom furling appears to be the best of all possible worlds with the exception of cost and possible mechanical malfunction. You can still have a rigid vang, in fact, think it's necessary as the boom has to remain in a fixed attitude to reef properly.

The old roller reefing system is a POS. It required a worm gear roller goose neck that rotated the boom wrapping the sail around the boom. It was tedious to reef, way harder than the simple slab reefing. It gave a lousy setting sail. There was no outhaul tension on the sail as it was reefed and you ended up with a huge belly in the sail just when you wanted a flat sail. It also ruined the sail when reefed because all the tension was on the leech and it stretched sail of shape. It was also hard to rig a vang when the sail was reefed as the boom had to be free to rotate. The solution was a horseshoe shaped affair that slid onto the boom from the end and allowed the boom to turned while giving purchase to the vang. Unfortunately, it rested on the sail cloth when reefed and looked like it would chafe through the cloth in long term use. Roller reefing was all the rage in the '60s and earlier though cannot for the life of me think why. It was such a lousy system can't see why anyone would even invent it in the first place.

There are a lot of solutions to going forward to reef that don't involve megabucks or catastrophic consequences in a gear failure. Harken, among others, offer single line reefing systems that allows you to reef from the cockpit. Not sure I trust them in the real world, but certainly less things to go wrong than in-boom or in-mast furling.

Personally, I wouldn't consider in-mast furling. If the sail jams, you could be stuck with way too much mainsail that could result in your death. The in boom system should allow you to at least drop the main if it malfunctions.

I'm a KISS kind of guy that thinks that any of these mainsail handling concoctions belong on small inland lake boats only. Have seen too many wiz bang ideas fall apart when things get nasty or even just a little unpleasant. If you can't go to the mast to do a slab reef, perhaps sailing is too strenuous an endeavor or the boat is just too large for the crew.

Aloha
Peter O.

[viking69]

I am curious to know what sort of price the boom style furler would be. i realize it depends on the size of boat but a rough idea would be interesting.

[Pblais]

Roller reefing is usually cheaper to add to an existing rig than roller furling.

About $12,000 US plus the cost of the sail. They replace the goosneck and vang. Of the cost about $1500 goes to the install. All the major hardware vendors have an offering. I loked at them at the Annapolis boat show. The Schaefer appears to me to be the better choice.

[Talbot]

Sorry people, the terminology being used hereis wrong.

a furling system is only used to completely furl or unroll a sail and is not useable for reducing sail area.

a reefing system can do what it says on the can - reef the sail.

thus the systems are called in-boom reefing
in-mast reefing, or behind mast reefing ( for add-on systems such as bamar, easy-reef etc.

One of the earlier posts also said that an in or behind mast system could not have battens - news to me, I have 5 battens in my sail, three of which are full length vertical and do a good job in keeping a good sail shape.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

I really like my conventional, full-batten main. I have three reefs that give me a lot of flexability. The Selden RCB system (there are lots of batt-car alternatives) makes the effort to raise the main reasonable. My not-very-big girlfriend gets the main within four feet of full hoist before moving to the winch for the last bit.

Keeping the track and cars clean, lubricated, and in good shape makes all the difference in the world.

If the effort wears on us I'll put an electric halyard winch on.

Sailed on a 70ft Tri and as you can imagine the main with battens and car's weighed hundreds of Kg.
The solution was to use the anchor winch to lift and then tweak the last bit by hand.

Working on the wide expansive non-tilting deck of a multi makes sail handling a lot easier as well.

Dave

[Limpet]

Has anyone seen data as to to the actual performance loss that could be incurred from the loss of sail shape associated with the required sail used in a Boom Furler?

I'm sure there are lots of opinions, but I was hoping for a test or report that compared with and without.


Thanks,

[camaraderie]

I have the Schaeffer system in-boom and my feelings are exactly the same as Bill T's...a fantastic addition to the boat...great performance under sail...ability t reef to any level with good sail shape...added safety as everthing can be done ON ANY POINT OF SAIL from the cockpit.
The only downside IMHO is the expense which is considerable. Mine was over $22K with sail.