Hood Mainsail Roller Furling

[Delancey]

Anybody know about these things? The Hood Stowaway in-mast roller furling?

Do these all rely on an electric motor? How do you operate them manually when there is no power? Does this mean you can't have battens in the mainsail? Can you not use the roller furling and still use these like a normal sail that uses the halyard to raise or lower the sail and for reefing?

This set-up seems like a bad idea to me, any thoughts?

[minaret]

I love mine. They do not rely strictly on the electric motor, switching to manual operation involves simply flipping a toggle on the unit to disengage the clutch and inserting a handle. Manual operation is easy, even on mine which has a 76' stick. It does mean you can't have battens, unless you want to go with vertical battens or inflatables. Both have known drawbacks. As long as the rig was designed for a furler it won't matter, they just stick on a few extra feet of mast height to provide the necessary sail area. You could easily just leave the sail unfurled and hoist it in the extrusion old-school every time, but I cant imagine why you would when manual operation is so easy. If you are really interested in learning more about this unit, I have factory manuals and could post pics. And yes, you can drop the sail while it is partially or even totally furled even if the gears jam up and manual operation is not an option either...