Trying to wrap my head around roller furling

[Hillbillybuddha]

Up until this point, every boat I've owned or sailed, were smaller 18 to 25 footers with hank-on jibs. We bought a Cascade 42 with a nice Schaeffer 3100 furler. We haven't sailed her much but we have sailed her. She has a 135% genoa. While sailing her, we used the furler to reef the sail and mostly used the genoa at closer to 100%. This seemed to work fine.

My wife and I live on this boat, in a marina but we decided that we want to be on the other coast so we are selling her and we bought a boat in the Atlantic. A Pearson Rhodes 41. But the boat doesn't have a roller furler. So I started researching furling systems and most things I've read say that the systems are not good for reefing the headsail unless the sail is built with reefing points. Now, I don't remember any reefing points on our current headsail but I've definitely sailed her with the genoa reefed. Is that something that the Schaeffer can do and a reason she is so much more expensive than the other brands? Or are all furlers non-reefing but something that most people reef anyways?

The furler that I'd really like to get for the Pearson Rhodes 41 is something like the Wykeham Martin Bronze Furling Gear. God, is that a good looking system and I think it would look just stunning on the Rhodes design. But the largest design is for up to 350 sq ft of headsail and the Pearson Rhodes headsail is 360 sq ft with a 100% jib. Would the extra 10 sq ft make that much of a difference? Should I look for a system that can handle a larger genoa? If furlers really aren't supposed to reef, should I even get a genoa or is a 100% jib fine?

If it matters, we want to sail around Miami, making trips to the Bahamas and Keys for a year before taking longer trips around the Caribbean, Mexico and maybe, if we're comfortable within a few years, cross the Atlantic. But we have a lot to learn before then.

[Sailmonkey]

The Schaffer is just a very well built piece of equipment. Hence the price.

The sail is what makes it reefable on the furler. The addition of a foam luff pad or similar makes a huge difference. That said, a reefed headsail (roller reefed) sucks. It’s shape is awful, but if you don’t care or notice the shape, who cares.

On another note, if the reliant is like a vanguard, you’ll want more than 100% for the headsail.

[Jim Cate]

Hillbilly, that bronze device is very different from a modern furler. It has no foil, and simply wraps the sail up around it's own (usually wire) luff. Emphatically not a reefing system, and not very desirable IMO.

FYI, lots of sailors use partly furled (ie reefed) headsails with good success... except when hard on the wind. On that point of sail the sail shape is critical, and the rolling up, even with a luff pad and independent tack bearings, gradually compromises sail shape. Yes, folks do use them to windward, but performance is not as good as it should be. On other points of sail the shape becomes less critical and the loads smaller, so more successful results are obtained. In general, for a cruising boat the compromises are acceptable, hence the ubiquitous appearance of furling/reefing foresails seen today.

In your place, you must decide if the traditional appearance of the bronze thing is more important to you than sailing performance, or be willing to change jibs for differing wind conditions rather than simply rolling in a reef.

And BTW, the "reef points" that you mention are not a facet of the furler, but areas of the sail with some extra reinforcement added by the sailmaker and marked on the sail with big "spots" to show when one has reached the reinforced area. Some sails just add the reinforcement all along the sail in the area normally rolled up to reef.

Jim