In boom furling

[Bob Burg]

I'm thinking about buying a boat with in boom furling. Most of what I've read is positive, any experiance with this in a 35' boat?

[boatman61]

Pain in the butt... but folk who have em will say different... else boats get hard to sell..
Fastest trouble free reefing system for me is slab...

[robert sailor]

Don't have a lot of experience with them but the angle of the boom has to be right on with most of them

[ontherocks83]

What brand in boom furler is going to make a difference. Some are better then others

[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Don't have a lot of experience with them but the angle of the boom has to be right on with most of them

This is very true, we had a in boom furler on an endeavourcat 30 the boom was i think 18' long. Fully.battened main. Raising it was effortless and reefing was the easiest I have ever seen. If the angle of the boom was wrong furling was a pain. Our friends had in mast furling and it got.jammed once in a while and you were screwed when that happened. If in boom jams you.can still drop.the main. I would do it again of it !

[Cotemar]

Maybe this will help.

In-Boom Furling: Five Systems

Practical Sailor - In-Boom Furling: Five Systems - Tips Article

[scotty c-m]

My brother has one on his Catalina 380. It is a very good system. The big advantage is that you do not have to leave the cockpit to set, furl or douse the mainsail. It is fast and easy. The boom (at least on Calypso) is on a set, rigid, vang. Therefore there is no issue of wether the boom is at the right angle. It's a lot easier to set than a slab system (I've used both), and allows for a huge variation of amount of sail set. If I had a choice between slab, mast and boom furl systems, the boom would be my first choice.

[ontherocks83]

my assumption would be that it comes down to how old the system is. Basing off of reports the early systems seemed like they were finicky and hard to manage, but the new systems appear to be much more user friendly

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by scotty c-m

My brother has one on his Catalina 380. It is a very good system. The big advantage is that you do not have to leave the cockpit to set, furl or douse the mainsail. It is fast and easy. The boom (at least on Calypso) is on a set, rigid, vang. Therefore there is no issue of wether the boom is at the right angle. It's a lot easier to set than a slab system (I've used both), and allows for a huge variation of amount of sail set. If I had a choice between slab, mast and boom furl systems, the boom would be my first choice.

What kind of boom furling system is it?

[glenn.225]

Had one on my Albin Vega, it was original to the boat, circa 1971. PIA to reef and try to get decent sail shape. Got a new main with slab reefing and a sail pack, world of difference. The newer ones are probably much better but I like the slab reefing.

[Charisma1937]

I'm thinking pro Furl or Schaffer

[Paul Elliott]

I've got a Leisurefurl boom-furler and it works well. The boom angle isn't all that difficult, I just slack the spring-loaded vang and ease the mainsheet and the boom sits at the proper angle. Getting the boom angle close, and keeping a little tension on the main halyard are sufficient for a good furl.

The only time I have difficulty is if I try to do a full furl or very deep reef when running downwind in strong wind. I can do a first or second (and maybe third) reef, but if I roll up more than that the sail tends to wind itself forward ("wind" as in wrap around the furling drum), which is hard on the batten pockets. If I'm really careful with angles and tensions I can usually do it without having to turn upwind.

Sail shape is quite good actually. We have full battens, and the way the main is cut (and the way it is attached to the furling drum) means we have a full sail shape in light air, and when the wind picks up we do a half-roll on the furler to flatten the main. The shape remains good even at the third reef point.

The system uses a lufftape, so there is some friction. I highly recommend a powered winch for the main halyard. You can always crank it up by hand, but it's a chore.

[sogin]

We have a leisure furl on a Sabre 426 MKII. I liked the system until the Luff rope pulled out of the sail at the second from the top batton pocket. We paid careful attention to angles, proper tension on the snubbing drum etc. Leisure blamed it on "operator error". After repair, the sail ripped again in the same spot on two other occasions. Everyone thought it was something in the track or it was operator error. I purchased a GoPro camera to document what was going on. It turned out the shell around the furling drum was binding the furling line as the sail approached the top of the mast. This created excessive tension on the halyard which in turn caused the luff rope to pull out of the sail at the very same spot on at least three occasions. The solution will be a lighter furling line that will not bind the shell of the drum when the sail is fully deployed. I think the greater height of the mast in the Sabre and hence the height of the sail hoist led to this problem because I think they incorrectly sized the shell around the furling drum. Other than that issue, the system works and we are able to get very good sail shape with the fully battened main sail.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by sogin

We have a leisure furl on a Sabre 426 MKII. I liked the system until the Luff rope pulled out of the sail at the second from the top batton pocket.

What kind of pre-feeder do you have between the drum and the mast slot? In my original Leisurefurl installation we had a pivoting aluminum pre-feeder that would bind and tear the sail at the lufftape when we were hoisting in certain conditions. This was replaced with a flexible plastic feeder and we no longer have that problem.

We had some pretty bad teething pains with the Leisurefurl. We had to replace the feeder, the mast slot, the lufftape -- all these had to be changed as they worked out the kinks in their design. That was eight or ten years ago. Since then the system has performed well.

It's still probably not as bulletproof as a more traditional mainsail system.

[CarlF]

I've been very happy with the Schaefer system. In four years it has never hung up - much less jammed. Battens make the sail shape much better than in mast furling. Things to consider:

A common complaint of boom furling systems is that the luff tape has to be replaced every year or two. The Schaefer's pivoting track keeps this from happening. If you go with another brand, ask about luff tape concerns.

With all boom furling systems, the boom has to be at a fixed angle or the sail will "walk" as it rolls. The easiest and most common solution is to use a rigid kicker set to the correct angle. We haven't touched our kicker since the sail was new.

Plan to get a new mainsail. There's an art to cutting these sails both to furl well and to set well. Getting the leach right is especially important since you can't move the boom up and down to adjust leach tension underway. Find a sailmaker who's done a lot of boom furling sails.

Arrange your lines so you can control both the halyard and the furling line at the same time. We have a winch for the loaded line and a small snubbing winch for the unloaded line - a wrap around a cleat would be fine too. This is especially important when lowering the sail. You want to keep tension on the halyard so that the sail rolls smoothly in the boom without folds.