Behind Mast Mainsail Furler Experience?

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by James S

I do appreciate Nicks view and detail.

Yes me too and the time he takes to make the long technical posts above.

However I think Talbot has hit the point,

We all know that Jedi worships at the god of performance, and that his preferred compromise is biased towards extracting every scrap of speed regardless of effort to achieve it. I have no problem with that, but I am a much lazier person, and prefer to work at a system that allows me to sail singlehanded and enjoy that sailing without worrying about acres of sailcloth.

If speed was the initial goal, I would have bought a Sigma 33 (similar value by the same manufacturer and lighter than our Moody 31) and put Viv on the rail
We didn't we bought a twin keeled cruising yacht thats well built with good accommodation and comfortable for the two of us, occasionally the teenagers, there friends, Angus the dog (38kgs) and Inky the Pug. The amount of stuff they require is just astonishing.

The fastest, easiest and cheapest way to make a boat go quicker is to get rid of the stuff and loose the weight. You don't have to go to the extreme of cutting handles off tooth brushes, just declutter. To make the point last weekend we removed all the food from the boat for the winter. Couldn't find a suitable box so took a large suitcase and after filling it had trouble lifting it over the guard rails

If speed isn't the issue but comfort is because your yacht is your second home (or even first) don't worry, relax and enjoy.

We won't be changing our sail plan, it works well, is easy to use and suits our sailing.

Pete

[dashivers1]

I own a Facnor (behind the mast, Tube system) on my 33 Endeavour. This system is hard to deploy, hard to roll up and does jam. I have contacted Facnor and the yard that installed the system but no one has been able to solve the issues. Over $6,000.00 was spent on the system and new sail. It seems now the system will be going in the trash can. I am open for suggestions and help if anyone has any.

[SabreKai]

Sabre Dance came equipped with such a creature when I bought her. The furling gear was a solid foil, made by Stream Stay. The gear was about 29 years old when i got the boat and within a couple of months, the foil had separated from the top end swag fitting and fell to the ground. The boat had been stored for god knows how long with the mast up and the foil vibrating in every breeze. I had it replaced with a Harken Cruising furler and gave it a try over one summer. I hated it. One thing I notice was the huge gap between foil and mast, no matter how tight the foil was. Another thing that annoyed the hell out of me was the foil vibrating in the wind. It got so bad that I ended up passing a rope over the spreaders and spiral winding the rope around the lower part of the foil and sail.

I will be getting rid of it this season and will go with slab reefing.

[s/v Jedi]

Oh well, after years of little or no progress, these posts might actually help make people understand that it wasn't all nonsense what I wrote in this thread

Shame it cost so much money to find out though... the info was here for free.

cheers,
Nick.

[Dockhead]

An interesting necropost.

I am surprised that this immediately turned into a referendum on in-mast furling, which did not exactly address the OP's question.

He was asking about add-on behind the mast furling, not in-mast furling. These are two different beasts.

On the OT question, Nick is right in theory, but in practice real in-mast furling doesn't suck as much as he makes out.

Concerning add-on behind-the-mast furling, I can say, based on my own experience, that this unequivocally sucks. It sucks big time. Don't even think about it. It destroys the performance of the mainsail, without even being easy to furl. If I (still) had a boat with that crappy Facnor system, I would rip it off, first thing.

Furling mainsails don't suck only if the boat is designed for them, with a taller mast to make up for the lack of roach, and with a properly engineered in-mast mechanism. The performance is still not as good as a real battened main, for all the reasons which Nick ably described, but for many people the certain increment of lost performance is worth it for the several advantages which in-mast furling provides.

[nes]

Yes, this is an ancient thread, but this is the first time I have seen it. I have a thought or two relative to the inmast furling (not behind the mast). I have a 2002 Huner 326, with a B&R Rig, and in mast furling. There was a learning curve on how to furl the sail and not jam it. Once I learned how, no problem. Convenience is the word for this. Performance on the other hand is not.
I believe that this boat is incredibly forgiving and a great boat to learn on, but not the fastest boat on the water. I have a friend with a 1999 Hunter 340, (only 2 feet longer) with a full roach main, and lazy jacks (they too have a learning curve on how to get the sail up and down with out hanging up on the lazy jack). His boat is not just a little bit faster due to the length, it is much faster. When it comes to getting underway or getting back in, I win, but when it comes to sailing even though I have more experience he wins every time.
As many of the posters in this thread have said, the Inmast furling is VERY easy to use, does not jam (when used properly) but is not as good for speed.
I have owned this boat for a little over 3 years, average about 36 days a year actually sailing, and love it, but I am not sure that the next boat I buy will have roller furling, if it does, most likely it will be in boom furling, so that I can get the battens.

[Lancerbye]

I have a factory installed behind the mast furling. The brand is CDI and it has been working fine for me for the six years I have owned this boat. It never jams, it has no boom and all in all performs quite well. I have friends who have in mast and like them and some that don't. Some have boom furlers with love hate relations there too. A big part of using any equipment is familiarity. Use it often and you get better at it.

[Sand crab]

I posted this on another thread but never got an answer. How do you get the vertical battens in the sail? Any pics? BOB

[reelife]

Have an E-Z Furl Behind Mast add on, on my Van 32. Almost took it off on purchase, but now I can honestly say I really like it. Especially when kids are all over or solo sailing. I have a cutter rig and I can literally have all sails up in about 3 minutes.

[bobconnie]

Come on guys! when I was young I sailed the pacific with gaff rigged sails all bagged forsails,ect, slow as hell but it got me there and back. 36ft by the way. done the same trip in a 44 ft with all furling sails and hyd winchs, much faster, much easier,don't give darn about speed, but ease of control is important to me! Im old timey in that I like reef early, when I can but sometimes you get caught short and need to do it Now, I was taught to head up to furl by hand anyway, and I do this with furlers and have never had a problem doing it this way, but again Im not in a hurry Im cruiseing. We were still sailing till a yr ago when had to have new hips lol just motor cruisein now.Hope to be motor sailing in a yr more Bob and Connie

[davil]

Originally Posted by Lancerbye

I have a behind the mast CDI which I like. I have never had problems with jams and I honestly can't see how an open system like this could jam. I is very simple and works very well. I am sure that I lose some performance but cruising is not racing. I still get decent speed and the main is used whenever I want. I see a lot of boats not using their mains because they are singlehandling and don't want the problems of raising and lowering their sails. All the lines come into the pilot house to one electric winch. I call my 44ft motorsailer senior friendly. lol

=====================================
found this older post and caught my attention the mention of a CDI system,Lancerbye's boat is a Lancer 44,always thought of CDI products for smaller boats,had them on a 20 ft and thought they were fine for the use and cost.
Are you using this on your 44 ft?
thanks