Helia 44: Feedback on FB in-mast furling main sail

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by yeloya

I have a sailed IMS mono and cat, classical main mono and cat, hence I can compare.
In mono it's less dangereous as the boat can heel and discharge some of extra blow. The biggest problem in mono is the lost of shape , end result you cannot go upwind or you tack to 120 degrees. Obviously I am not talking about Grand Soleil or X yachts that don't use IMS (maybe there are but haven't seen yet any) but Beneteau, Jeanneau, etc.
For the OP who said "I haven't seen any IMS jammed", I have seen many as a charter operator. You may think of lack of experience or care for charter customers but 8 years ago an older french couple in circumnavigation have been cought to 60 kts of wind near Kas and they couldn't take the main in which was jammed. They were about to die and CG saved them at the very last attempt.
I also see now cats or monos with IMS and self tacking gib which is a terrible combination, one simply cannot sail on these boats unless you have 20 kts of wind from the beam..

Cheers

Yeloya

Hmmm....not sure about much of what you say. Cant go upwind? The mainsail is only one factor that determines upwind ability and I can asure you my boat points quite high, it has very good windward ability, thus we differ on this view.

Regarding your experience with both inmast and traditional, i said "most" detractors of inmast furlers have little experience if any with them because I know some have owned and sailed both, im one of those, but that dosent change the fact that many (most)comment with zero experience behind their claims.

I spent 8 mths around the Seychelles charter fleet and also much time around charters in Thailand. My experience from watching them daily is they can screw just about anything up, they have talent The only ims i saw jammed was a charter boat. Ive also heard maydays called for fouled anchors thus a small percentage of charter boats jamming a sail is irrelevant imho regarding this subject.

The 60 year old couple that nearly died because of a jammed sail? Thats one story out of how many crusiers that use them safely while circumnavigating the world? I know a guy that pitch poled a catamaran, yet i know many more that have never done such a thing, does this mean cats are no good?

I'll give one example that i know of. The owner of a sister ship of mine (Catalina 470) had a inmast furler. He comes from a racing back ground and decided when it was time to buy a new sail he would convert to a batterned slap reefed main, which he did. After several years of sailing it hes changing back tonthe ims because he prefers the convience over the small increase in performance he got from the traditional setup. Same boat, same owner, Id say he has the points on the board to compare apples to apples. Hes not racing, hes cruising.

Im currently quite remote, surprised i have internet. Im with 8 yachts preparing to cross to South Africa. I just counted how many monos in the anchorage have furlers , one traditional slab reef , one boom furler and five inmast furlers. If they are that bad why are so many world crusiers using them safely?

Cheers Dale.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by jmorrison146

Any thoughts on a roller-furling boom on a catamaran?

I don’t know why it would be different on a Cat, but ours works well.
It does deal with some issues that in mast has like sail shape, roach and battens, but isn’t as flexible and or adjustable as a traditional main.
It’s also quite expensive, my boat came with it, I wouldn’t pay that kind of money for one, but I didn’t buy a new Boat either.

My guess is that from a performance perspective it’s somewhere in between in mast and traditional, it is easy to operate though, and I think it would be tough to jam, and even if it did jam, you can still drop the sail just like it’s normally done.

I think it works well on our boat, cause our sail doesn’t derive much power from the main. In ten or twelve kts of wind I’ll hoist the main and we sail at about 2 kts, shake out the Genoa and we are at 6 kts.

It’s my estimation that on a boat that derives significant power from the main that no kind of furling sail is good.
Having said that it seems many mono’s that I would think would be mostly main driven have in mast furling? I think that’s marketing at play?

[ed91e]

Thanks for all the feedback.
What about conversion from roller furling to a normal main? Does that mean you have to change the whole mast?

[Helia 44]

ED91.... Helia 44 here...

No, No, and No....

F.P. and Multi-Hull Solutions are working on a PROTOTYPE right now in a very good Boom Furling system ! Why? Because it this system you get the good battens in the mail sail that are all important...


I have just seen one at Abell Point Marina here in the Whitsundays here in Australia in the middle of the GBR area. It is a funny shaped boom with flares, and the main sail all furls up in it with battens (sp?)...and anyway it pulls up the mast on like a furler track that is attached to the mast with the mast in place. The mainsail has almost as good of shape as a non furling one, maybe even the same shape which is all important up wind... So don't settle for less or you will regret it. I know F.P. may be considering this special Boom Furler as an option (so I hear).... It is powered, remote, and has a manual furling system you can run as a back up... Heck, I am so impressed I might get the whole system myself with patches on the main so I can power it down to reef points remotely as I Single Handle my Saba 50.. (My Wife is very handicapped needing back surgery, which is not available yet in experimental stages, so She cannot do ANY deck work.) I single handle the Saba 50 with her at the helm or on auto pilot, so this furler is so impressive I may get it myself.

The track on the mast is like what you would see on a furler foil. The main has a bolt rope affair that runs up the track, you still have battens in the main, and it all rolls into a special boom.... THIS IS IT !! The Main has no apparent disadvantaged side effects of the furling