Behind the Mast Furling Main Sails

[Kay Koudele]

We are exploring the option of purchasing a behind the mast roller furling main sail system for our 1987 Southely 115. There is a French system called Facnor, which sounds interesting, but wonder if anyone has had some experence with it. Also, experience/knowledge with other brands would be most helpful.
Many thanks!
Fred and Kay

[Sailndive345]

Can't profess much technical knowledge but I have had a few neighboring boats w/ such systems and these all existed in a halloween-like atmosphere... Any little wind seemed to cause a distinct "howling" sound - pretty spooky!..

Sailndive

[beneteau-500]

fred and kay I have the facnor furling mast on my yacht and i find it a very good system and reliable and very strong where i have seen others snap and break mine has not and it is now 19 yrs old and have never had to do any repairs to it only service checks and as for a howling sound as stated by sailndive i have never had that prob

[FSMike]

I think the "howling" sound is produced by in mast furling systems rather than behind the mast systems. Be prepared to lose some boat speed due to reduced sail area.

[Kay Koudele]

Many thanks for your responses. Nice to hear you've had it a long time (beneteau-500) with good results. I wonder if they have made changes to the system since you bought it. We know we will give up some speed, but we're getting to the place where we'd appreciate a little more convenience. :-)

[camtep]

Originally Posted by Kay Koudele

We are exploring the option of purchasing a behind the mast roller furling main sail system for our 1987 Southely 115. There is a French system called Facnor, which sounds interesting, but wonder if anyone has had some experence with it. Also, experience/knowledge with other brands would be most helpful.
Many thanks!
Fred and Kay

We had a Selden behind the mast furling system. This was riveted onto the original mast. The system worked very well but I didn't like the increase in weight aloft,windage and loss of mainsail area.(no roach). I replaced the rig with a new lighter,taller rig and went with full battens,Harken batt cars and a Dutchman reefing system.

[barnakiel]

All in-mast and behind mast systems I have seen and used sucked. The only no-problem I heard was from Amel owners. But a furling main is probably THE thing if all you do is small sailing in light weather.

b.

[Kay Koudele]

We sailed on a friend's Southerly 115 in Croatia with force 9 winds, and his add-on behind the mast furling main system worked great. So easy to reef, raise and lower. But we can't remember the brand name of the system. After 20,000 miles of cruising, we are taking it slower and close to home now, so thought this might be a good idea. Still undecided. Thanks for the input!

[SabreKai]

Sabre Dance was rigged with one of the earliest behind the mast rigs, made by Stayfurl. It was there when I bought the boat, about 30 years old. About two weeks after I bought the boat, a windstorm came thru and the top fitting gave way. So I replaced it with a Harken foil set. It seems to work well but it wobbles about pretty bad when the wind blows and the sail is furled. Theres also a very wide gap between mast and sail. I haven't had much chance to use it, no wind after the set up was replaced, but I'm not very impressed with it. I may well go back to slides in the track and a jiffy reefing set up.


Sabre

[Sailndive345]

Originally Posted by FSMike

I think the "howling" sound is produced by in mast furling systems rather than behind the mast systems. Be prepared to lose some boat speed due to reduced sail area.

The systems I mentioned in my post were behind mast furling systems. There were two boats (slip neighbors) and one that was on the hard when I was painting the bottom. Just to keep me honest, we are talking about the systems that look like a roller furler attached parallel to the aft side of the masts, are we not? I think the way these were installed created a whistle like construct at certain wind angles.

I currently (& for the first time ) have an in mast furling main. If you had asked me before I replaced the main, I would have been complaining Ever since I replaced the main (little over a year ago) I have been very happy with it. I have heard of a number of issues with this type but never the whistling.

Fair winds!

Sailndive

[Kay Koudele]

Sailndive345-
Our main is very "tired" so would also need to be replaced. What system do you have? I remember when we sailed through St. Augustine there were some mighty squalls that flew by. They would be a good test of systems. I also remember that it was a charming community!

[Sailndive345]

Originally Posted by Kay Koudele

Sailndive345-
Our main is very "tired" so would also need to be replaced. What system do you have? I remember when we sailed through St. Augustine there were some mighty squalls that flew by. They would be a good test of systems. I also remember that it was a charming community!

Indeed - this is one of the best places I kept my boat - the afternoon/evening squalls are definitely part of the 'package' in this area

The mast and furler on Layla is a US Spars (also known as ZSpars - Gainesville, FL) unit. Their on-line documentation has been very helpful for parts and maintenance as well. Can be found at www.usspars.com

My sails are from Neil Pryde. They were built in the Far East, however, all my dealings were with the Neil Pryde folks in New England area. If you'd like their contact info, please let me know. I think it was helpful that they were the builder of the original sails for the production line of Beneteau 461s; they had all the measurements and all I had to do was to verify that they matched my particular boat.

Part (not all ) of the problem with my older main was that it had blown out to the point that it wasn't furling evenly - which caused problems primarily with 'unfurling' rather than 'furling' - believe it or not - I can provide further details if you'd like if you PM me.

Fair winds - hope this helps.

Sailndive

[feelsgood]

Be aware if you are thinking on the behind the mast system as it changes the vanishing point of your yacht more than you think. I would go for the boom reefing system as it keeps all the weight low and you can get at all the working parts from the deck which is safer than climbing masts in bad weather also if the reefing system behind the mast jams you cant lower the sail but with the in boom system you can

[camtep]

Originally Posted by Kay Koudele

Sailndive345-
Our main is very "tired" so would also need to be replaced. What system do you have? I remember when we sailed through St. Augustine there were some mighty squalls that flew by. They would be a good test of systems. I also remember that it was a charming community!

I have a mast with Selden behind mast furling for sale. Includes main sail (laminate). Sail and furler were 5 years old when I took them off the boat. P of original rig was 42.4' compared with your 38.6'. E is the same at 12'. P on furling main would be less and there is no roach which reduces sail area. Mast is in Maine which is probably a problem. I haven't been actively trying to sell this mast.

[FSMike]

Originally Posted by Sailndive345

I currently ------ have an in mast furling main. ------- I have been very happy with it. I have heard of a number of issues with this type but never the whistling.



Sailndive

Sailndive -
Maybe new designs have improved things. Years ago when i was working at a marina and in mast furling systems were "new fangled", we actually had to turn boats around in their slips occasionally so the wind wouldn't produce whistling loud enough to keep people awake. Some systems actually had a zip up kind of gizmo which would seal up the slot in the mast.
I don't remember any similar complaints about behind the mast systems but that's just my experience.