I hope to save some one else who is tempted by practical sailors great review of the poor excuse for a
roller furler. The unit is total junk. Practical sailor must have been paid to write anything positive about the customer
service, product design, and build quality.
Starting with product design from the top down the whole unit is garbage.
1. On top of the foil the
halyard block is part of the foil. Opinions may differ on this yes it will stop
halyard wrap.( so will a block on the mast) . it also leaves you with 50foot of halyard at the drum rather then the
mast. (Kinda of in the way). But no matter how you feel about that it doesnt negatevthe fact that the
The poor design quality of alado this top foil block section using 2 pieces which clamp onto the top of the foil. A good design would be through bolted, tapped,or riveted into the foil rather then relying on 1" of foil slotted into the top just compressed. I'm sure it will
work its way out. And be prepared to get more
hardware all the
hardware is to small. NyLock nuts should have a thread sticking out to engage the locking attributes of the nut. Plus I like to use washers on both sides so the hex nut doesnt dig into the aluminium. But every piece of hardware they supplied was short and with out washers.
2. the foils these fouls seem pretty robust however once again I'd like to see some sort of mechanical fasteners. (Harken uses tiny hex bolts )(
plastimo is rivitted which makes
plastimo a throwaway unit if the foils come apart like many do)
3. Now to the drum; it's almost comical that the drum doesnt lock onto the
chain plate to keep it from turning with the
furler. Instead you run lines to your life lines!!! ( (because that's convienent). Now if your like me and this is on a staysail for a
cutter your gonna have major issues of clutter and crap. And major issues returning the p.o.s. good luck getting through to david davenport of alado
usa .because he either isn't in business and hasn't taken down the website. or just horrible at it. Then you'll notice The plastic bushing that goes over the stay and inside the drum to center it doesnt even occupy the whole inside of the drum its 2" from the top. I wouldn't say that's much of an issue but just another example of poor craftmanship and poor design. I'm sure it'll be filled up with debris and wearing on the stay.then to the bottom of the drum there's 3 bolts to hold the unit together these once again arent tapped or seated into a hole or anything they're just jammed into the sleeve.
4. Now this whole pile of trash you just put up on your stay wants to fall down. Gravity of course. So you have a polypropylene block that clamps onto your stay and the top halyard block, foil,and drum All sit on that. What a poor design there too. Its rectangle and doesnt even look like it belongs. I would have made it round so it handles all the weight of the sail and the unit a little better. At the very least! And remember every piece of hardware is short.
5. Now you can't make the foils go to the top of the stay because of the eye fitting or because of the proximity to the
mast won't allow it to turn with out banging and getting stuck on the mast. So you'll have a few inches short. Since the p.o.s. doesnt lock into the bottom
chain plate ( it just sits on a piece of poly block) you will have the whole unit plus weight of the sail slamming up and down until a. It breaks lose and falls over the turn buckle. Or b. Goes up hard enough to jam over the top of the stay fitting jams up and won't furl. ( this already happend to me.) Remember alado thought it was a good idea to rely on gravity to hold it down.
As far a customer
service. There is none in the
usa. you will have to get in touch with anyone its gonna have to be the factory in
Brazil. Andre down there was very helpful. After 3 weeks of nothing I found him in
google. David Davenport of alado usa will not answer
phone calls ,emails,questions,or honor any warranty claims. He won't even get back to you. So go right to the factory in
brazil. I bought my first unit off david and paid paypal it says 4 days door to door. After a week I heard nothing so I had to get pay pal to step in and get me my
money back after 2 weeks I got a refund. Ohh and david finally got back to me. What a joke.
So andre in brazil is knowledge full and helpful and he ships amazingly fast. Its 80$
shipping for any warranty
parts. They probably will give you the
parts free if you pay
shipping. Like the did me. I'm sure the parts cost them 20$ or so. They are total junk and this
furler has no place on a
boat.
Maybe practical sailor was paid off to review this thing I don't know. after installing mine and laughing shaking my
head and cursing. have the whole marina come over and verify your not missing somthing. because its such a poor design you think maybe you did somthing wrong. But rest assured it's just that poor of a product.
So after 900$ for the unit (they sent the wring drum) plus another 80 for replacement. Plus another 50$ for all new proper hardware.
Grand total 1030$ and a month of back and forth . I have now taken the piece of crap off the
boat and I assume I can't return the unit because I've cut the foils etc. Total piece of crap do not buy anything from alado nautica
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