Talk me out of roller furling

[Ryban]

I had a furling headsail on my last boat and loved it. Kept me off the foredeck at sea, made adjusting sail area for squalls very easy, and I never really cared about the performance hit.

On my new boat, a Westsail 32, we are cutter rigged with hank-on sails, and all my headsails are yankee cuts. Roller furling seems like a no brainer here, especially given that the forestay is at the end of a bowsprit, which is not a very fun place to be while pounding into seas.

So all that said, before I take the plunge and equip the boat with roller furling, are there any really compelling reasons to keep things hank on?

[thomm225]

Yes, that Westsail 32 (19,500 lbs. disp.) is a pretty stable platform compared to your old Albin Vega 27 (5,070 lbs. disp.) or my Bristol 27 (6600 lbs. disp.)

I wanted to go old school with hank on sails since I needed new sails this year but should I decide to sail say to the Bahamas or further offshore and need to make sail changes, I'd hate to be doing that on the bucking broncos that are small boats especially at night so I stayed with the furler.

[Bellinghamster]

Regular dousing in saltwater keeps your deck shoes from growing mold?

Seriously, tho. Hank-on has a classic look and nice simplicity, easier sail changes from a genoa to a heavy weather headsail... but that's rarely necessary with a cutter.

With a headsail on a bowsprit I think furling is the way to go.

On our last boat (CSY44 cutter) I converted from hank-on to 130% roller furling headsail but kept the club-boomed staysail as hank-on. It was easy to manage (i.e. drop and lash to the club boom) safely inboard on the foredeck. I had no regrets with that setup.

[PippaB]

If you sail the Westsail the way we sail our cutter then I would suggest splitting the difference. Make the jib a roller and leave the hanks on the staysail.

For us the staysail is the de facto gale sail. When the winds pick up we furl the jib, reef the main, and bring the center of effort low and centered with the reefed main and staysail. The staysail is almost bullet proof, but when s*#! really hits the fan having the hank on staysail makes it much easier to switch to a storm jib. Much easier, to me, than any of the options that go over a roller furling sail. They all require a trip forward in conditions where you really don't want to make one, but at least it is only to the inner stay and not all the way out to the pointy end.

All that gets thrown out if you think you would ever use the furler to reef the staysail, but we have never really found that to be the need.

[Benz]

Your statistical chances of having a furler misbehave at a bad time are high--it's happened to enough people (myself included), that I find furlers unacceptable for a boat going offshore.
Not only that, but they are expensive, create a lot of windage and weight aloft, and the first time you're anchored somewhere squirrely with 40 kts of gale shaking that forestay around you'll wish to goodness that bulky sail was lashed along the bowsprit or stowed below rather than making a bad situation worse.
Many will disagree with me, but that's my opinion.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by Ryban

I had a furling headsail on my last boat and loved it. Kept me off the foredeck at sea, made adjusting sail area for squalls very easy, and I never really cared about the performance hit.

On my new boat, a Westsail 32, we are cutter rigged with hank-on sails, and all my headsails are yankee cuts. Roller furling seems like a no brainer here, especially given that the forestay is at the end of a bowsprit, which is not a very fun place to be while pounding into seas.

So all that said, before I take the plunge and equip the boat with roller furling, are there any really compelling reasons to keep things hank on?

Split the difference, get a ReefRite furler. Sew slugs on the sail and they act like hanks, furl the sail OR pull it down. Makes changing headsail off shore way easier.

Made in New Zealand. Have a wonderful reputation. We installed one this spring and really like it. Installed it ourselves. Really well thought out, simple, lots to love.

https://reefrite.co.nz/

[JBP]

In addition to the reasons above (they slow you down, they are more likely to break, they are expensive), I find that I am far less likely to choose the correct sail for the conditions. Too lazy to take it down and put on the correct one. If it was hanked on, I'd have to make that choice every day.

[rslifkin]

If a furling system is unreliable, that's a problem. But considering the number of furlers out there in use every day, I can't say they're unreliable as a rule. A properly spec-ed furler that's installed well, maintained appropriately, has good furling line routing, appropriate size match of furling line and drum, etc. should be reliable.

[Don C L]

I don't know for sure, never sailed a boat with a roller furled Yankee but I would think that it will behave, and perform, better and a more reliably than a roller furled jib given the shape. I have hank-ons and I am ok with them since I have grown up with them. But the convenience of not having to go forward out onto a sprit is also a safety benefit. If it were me I'd roller furl the Yankee and leave the staysail hank on.

[Brioche]

I don't have experience with your boat, but from other cutters I have sailed it seems how you plan to use the boat makes a big difference. For example., CSY-44 allow you to move the staysail to a point by the shrouds -- if you don't do that and you need to tack a lot it can be very frustrating without a roller furling jib. In open water where you take long legs, it may matter less.

[boatman61]

I'll second the furl/slug option.. I have done this on several boats in the past to save money by not having to buy a tailor made furling headsail.. just remove the hanks and replace with appropriate sized slugs and have the best of both worlds.. plus the slugged sail drops so much easier than the purpose made sail.

[Kd9truck]

My 2 cents

Yes on the roller furling foresail and staysail, no on the in-mast or boom furling.

Not asked but in theme, no electric or hydraulic.

My reasoning on no power:
I single hand a lot, my vessel is 45 ft, this is the largest size sloop that I can manage manually, on a sailboat if something is to hard to do manually then adding a power option adds risk. I try to reduce risk as much as possible.

I have crewed on larger vessels, 65ft is the largest so far, I have been part of the crisis management when a hydraulic line failed, when the in mast jammed sail out trying to reef, and when the electric roller Genoa cut out while trying to strike the sail because of reapidly increasing wind velocity.

It seems all electric/hydraulic furlers work when deploying, it all seems true that when anything elec/hydro fails it is accompanied buy several other things at the same time to complicate things for the fun of it.

I grew up next to Mr Murphy ( famous for Murphy’s law)he had a nasty habit of commenting on everything I have done
Cheers

[Ryban]

The Reef Rite system sounds really appealing in many ways. I contacted them for a quote and some more info -- I couldn't really find all that much about them. Seems like they're an engineering/machining firm that does a wide variety of things.

[JPA Cate]

We started out with hank on sails on our first "Insatiable" [I-1]. After a few years of cruising coastally and offshore, Jim started counting times he didn't want to go forward to make a headsail change (on a trip across from Oz to NZ, with 3 frontal passages). He then bought a reefrite furler in NZ, which we used for a while, and liked. We kept the high aspect mainsail with two reefpoints.

With I-2, our current "Insatiable II", we have two furlers, a "Reef-It", for the 120% headsail, and a Facnor for the staysail. That latter sail is a lot like a #4 blade, but is usable partially rolled up for a storm staysail. The Reef-It is a more sturdily built bit of kit, made here in Tasmania. The mainsail on this boat has three reefs (and all are rigged all the time). The first reef drops the main low enough to clear the runners, so we can just leave them set. Our Solent rig is very different from the classic cutter rig of the W32.

Ryban, I'd suggest you take the boat out to sea when some 20-45 is predicted, and then see what you want to do. One of the virtues of your boat, with it's in-line spreaders, and hank on sails is that it invites you to drop the headsail early, before the seas get up, and secure the headsail, and for running off to make the process easier, you can wing the main way out, and prevent it. You may find that the boat tells you what she prefers. Take notes in your ship's log. For us, with our boat, You will always be able to drop a sail very fast, faster that one can roll up a sail, even with a power assist. You learn how to drop them so they fall on deck, and you crawl to secure them. Keep the slab reefing. That main is not a very big sail: I bet you can carry it by yourself. [Ours takes two adult males (or a big female), it's luff is 52.8 ft, leach is 55.44 ft, and foot 18.48 ft. Our boat is 46 ft and displaces about 12 tonnes with all our stuff, plus fuel and water.] Experience includes sailing a 30 footer to HI and back from SF. Our best day's run was under storm jib alone, pushed along by Tropical Storm Gil.

Ann

[Boatguy30]

New staysail with a reef, new 125 or 130 high cut on a furler on the headstay. If you really want to avoid the witchy hypothetical furler problems that are basically non existent with a well-maintained (and new in this case) furler, get a Schaefer