Boom Furling Pros and Cons, Please

[niel12]

Single handed circumvention is a dream born from desperation for reliable help and risky personality matches. Simplicity in handling your sails can go a long way in making it a single handed or short handed trip. Add a electric whinch and whoa, your'e on your own!

Someone once said that you loose about 20% sail power because of a boom furl configuration and battened mainsails are not intended for boom furls.

[VirtualVagabond]

As I understand it, one of the advantages of boom furlers, as opposed to in mast furlers, is that you can still have battens.

[Shiner]

Had a fully battened main on a Hurley Meridian 31 ketch.
Worked a treat and was a dream to reef.
Regards.
Shiner

[bstreep]

Our boat has a Profurl inboom furler. Thankfully, I didn't have to pay for it. If I did, I wouldn't.

That being said, it works well.

Pros: Fully battened main, easy furling, easy reefing, unlike in-mast, if it jams for some reason (never has happened to us), you can dump it on the deck.

Cons: Insanely expensive ($20-25K on ours), due to new boom, hydraulic boom vang, electric winch. Mainsail has to be custom cut (the luff moves back and forth when it furls, like a fishing reel), has to be in the wind to raise/lower.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by niel12

Someone once said that you loose about 20% sail power because of a boom furl configuration and battened mainsails are not intended for boom furls.

That's bunk. Anyone who claims to lose that much power because of a furling configuration is either a liar or a lousy sailor.

[speciald@ocens.]

I have my second boat with a LeisureFurl boom. The advantages include: full battens - reef at each batten, 20% more sail area than in-mast furling, weight comes down as sail is reefed, if it breaks - the sail can brought down and tied to boom. Disadvantages - cost, will need electric winch to control sail hoisting and retrieval, the wind must be out of the sail for reefing or lowering (same as in-mast).

[DRS]

Spoiled rotten! Profurl in boom and electric winches. Way too easy. Battened main the only time I had an issue was when the out haul broke. When we tried to roll up the sail it moved up the boom too fast and the battens ended up binding. Solution, dump it on the deck and flake it like a regular sail.
So easy you have to be careful ... you might get used to it.

[bstreep]

Originally Posted by DRS

Spoiled rotten! Profurl in boom and electric winches. Way too easy.

Yup. Nailed me! Guilty as charged. The Admiral thinks it's wonderful...

Like I said, if I were the one making the choice, I wouldn't do this.

[DRS]

Like I said, if I were the one making the choice, I wouldn't do this.[/QUOTE]

Bstreep I'm not sure. I think I might spring for it again or maybe I'm just turning soft

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by niel12

Someone once said that you loose about 20% sail power because of a boom furl configuration and battened mainsails are not intended for boom furls.

Whoever said that is confusing mast furlers with boom furlers.

With a boom furler you usually have full-length battens, and a full-size, full-roach main.

With a mast furler, usually the main is battenless and the sail has a hollow roach. Newer mast furlers are sporting vertical or pivoting(?) battens, allowing for a fuller roach. I have to think that the vertical battens somewhat spoil the airflow over the sail, but perhaps I'm wrong about that.

Each of these systems have their pros and cons. I have the Leisurefurl boom furler, and while it is not without issues, on whole I like it.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Whoever said that is confusing mast furlers with boom furlers.

Sorry, not even there.

20%?

Most PHRF fleets will grant a 3-seconds-per-mile allowance for in-mast furlers. That figures out, on average, to be around .05%.

Right. That's 1/2 of one percent.

Whoever threw out that 20% figure had no idea what he was talking about.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Bash

Sorry, not even there.

20%?

Most PHRF fleets will grant a 3-seconds-per-mile allowance for in-mast furlers. That figures out, on average, to be around .05%.

Right. That's 1/2 of one percent.

Whoever threw out that 20% figure had no idea what he was talking about.

Agreed, 20% sounds unlikely. On the other hand, 0.05% isn't half of one percent, it's five percent. I've seen references to keeping the extra roach area below 10 or 12%, otherwise it starts interfering with the backstay, so 5% sounds like it could be pretty typical. Definitely not 20%.

[edit:] Actually, the loss of area could be more than 5-10%, since with the early hollow-roach mast-furling mains we are losing a few percent compared with a flat-roach sail. Still probably not 20%

[rebel heart]

I had one jam on me during a delivery. Not a lot of fun to deal with. Seems like one of those deals that when it works it works very well, but spooked me pretty good. Apparently this was because of new rigging lines which caused something to come loose; I didn't really follow up with them on the whole thing.

[bstreep]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I had one jam on me during a delivery. Not a lot of fun to deal with. Seems like one of those deals that when it works it works very well, but spooked me pretty good. Apparently this was because of new rigging lines which caused something to come loose; I didn't really follow up with them on the whole thing.

If it was in-boom - you should have been able to dump it on the deck? Or was this going up? If so, one HAS to keep tension both up and down on the furling line or halyard - otherwise it CAN jam. Just like any other furler. Our furling line is completely accessible from an opening in the boom.

Our main is also offset - the track is hung off of the back of the mast about 6" from the mast. This also helps performance.

[Mexdon]

Originally Posted by DRS

Bstreep I'm not sure. I think I might spring for it again or maybe I'm just turning soft

Something to do with age?