27 bristol

[clifflindsey]

im new to the whole sailing thing, i just got a 27 foot bristol, looks to me like a nice boat. ive been seeing other boats around that have those roller furlings.. i think they're called. they spin the jib up so you dont have to take it off all the time or store it on deck. when questioning some people id run into, they would tell me that its not uncommon for them to break, and of course in certain situations, that would be bad. i was just hoping someone here could give me some inisght, maybe someone with a roller furling on a 27 foot bristol. word.

[Ex-Calif]

We have a 27 footer as well with a Profurl 100 jib furler. We have a massive 150% jenny and our furler is one of the best things on the boat.

There is never a thought of going out or not going out. We are under way in less than 5 minutes. When conditions build up it is easy to reduce sail.

In fact last week in our club's twilight race we had pretty strong winds. One of the 32 footers broached twice on the beat as he couldn't short sails and was having a problem with the mainsheet. We were furled to about 100% with one reef in the main. A 30 footer had a storm jib up and also a reef in the main.

At the top mark it took 2 seconds for us to unfurl the rest of the genny, almost like flying the spinnaker, for the run. Net result was while we lost ground on the 30 footer to windward, we were able to close on the 30 footer downwind. At the bottom mark gybe we furled back in. This flexibility allowed us to beat the 30 footer on handicap.

Our furler has had a couple of halyard wraps but we fully understand it and it was never been a problem.

[olivertwist]

My 28' Cape Dory has a Pro Furl with a 150 Genoa. I wouldn't want to sail without it. I did have trouble on the first day sailing it. A squall was approaching so we reefed the main and then started to furl the jenny only to find the furling line was out of the drum and wrapped around the stay. My crew and I hadn't had that happen before and had no time to figure it out before the squall hit. We took a knock down and had to luff it and let it flog while they untangled it in the pouring rain. The only damage was we lost the Sunbrella reinforcement on the leech which had to be replaced and we looked pretty ragged with a 15 foot streamer trailing from the jib.

After that we watched carefully when we unfurled to see that the line didn't get out of the drum. When you are looking for it you can stop unfurling as soon as it goes off and fix it in a second.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by olivertwist

After that we watched carefully when we unfurled to see that the line didn't get out of the drum. When you are looking for it you can stop unfurling as soon as it goes off and fix it in a second.

Do you have a lead block in front of the drum?

Ours has a lead block on a swivel (attached to the pulpit post) to align the line going in. Haven't experienced anything like that one.

[Pura Vida]

Having to go forward and fix a furler is a pain. Having to go forward and raise and lower a sail is a frequent pain. Having sailed with both I prefer the furler.

[olivertwist]

Mine has a fairlead mounted on a lifeline stanchion. It guides it well if we keep tension on the furling line as we pull the jib out. I'd like to see how the swivel block is set up.

[sluissa]

I've got no problem with my hank on jib. Granted, I may not feel the same way in 20 or 30 years, but I like not only having 3 different sails in case I have a blow out on one or more, but also the simplicity and not having to worry about yet one more part of the boat breaking. Still, it's all your decision. I just know even with my little bit of experience just bay sailing, I've seen several furler problems already. That might be operator error, or lack of maintainence and nothing to do with the furler itself, but I haven't seen anything yet that would make me want to even think about getting one.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by olivertwist

Mine has a fairlead mounted on a lifeline stanchion. It guides it well if we keep tension on the furling line as we pull the jib out. I'd like to see how the swivel block is set up.

You probably have something the same as ours. We also keep tension on the furling line as we pay out the genny.

The biggest draw back is that when paritally furled the sail definitely stalls sooner and restricts our pointing.