Is there a difference in quality between roller furler mfg?

I need to purchase two new roller furlers and am now in the process of getting bids. I currently have quotes on Schaefer, Profurl, and Harken. Does anyone have words of wisdom to help me make a purchase?

Have a Great Day!
Earl

 

Check out the simplicite design, much like the one in my book. Only one moving part, once it is up, far less to fail on it, and far less expensive. I've been using this type for decades, as have my clients and none have ever had a failure on one, in hundreds of thousands of miles of ocean cruising. You can easily build your own for under $200.

 

Thanks Brent for the tip. I serched the net for info on Simplicite but can't seem to find much details about it. Do they make a double track reefer? I don't know if I would have the time to build my own, but where do I get plans to build my own? I would at least like to see the plans to determine the difficulty I'd have in building.

Have a Great Day!
Earl

 

i very much prefer furlers like those (sorry for the german but you will get the idea of the technologie):
http://www.kohlhoff-online.de/documents/K-Furler.pdf

at least for sails i do not reef by meas of the furler.... frankly spoken - a genua reefed with its furling system is not very ideal... bad to trim and it is not good for the sail either....
and thats the reason why i do not use it in that way and therefor i prefer those rolers mentioned above...

 

http://furler.ca/

 

Striclty speaking there are two types of headsail storage systems, furling and reefing, and as far as I know only two on the market are true reefing systems. By this I mean they keep an efficient shape when partially furled, non of those ugly creases at 45deg.

They do this in two ways. Firstly by having not only a head swivel but also a tack swivel, and secondly by having a 'set back' cut into the head and tack of the sail. As the furling line is pulled and the foil turned the head and tack are left behind slightly, flattening the sail as it is furled.

Furlex is one of these and they are a nice unit but have a plastic drum surround which I'm not a fan of.

The other is these guys
www.almasts.com.au

The guy who designed the Reefit still makes it and I'm sure they can ship anywhere.

I have sailed on many boats with these furlers and they work really well. Also Ken Gourlay, the man who is the oldest and fastest Aussie to sail around the world non-stop, used one of these without a hitch all the way round.

I have sold all types of furlers for a few years and it's by far and away the best on the market in my opinion. That said I don't sell many Harkens or know much about them as they are very expensive here in Oz and Harken's after sales service here sucks!!!

Plan to get some shots of the sails reefed next time I'm out on a boat with a Reefit, so if you want them PM me.

Mez

 

My book has the plans for building your own. It's simple enough that it doesn't take much time. I used it for reefing all the way across the Pacific many times , no problem. You do have to move your sheet lead foreward when reefed, which I did with a loop over the sheet from my chainplates.
Using a foam flattening strip in the luff of your headsail makes the middle of the sail a bigger diameter when rolled up , taking the bag out of it and making it reef flatter. I haven't done that yet, it's on my project list.

 

"it's on my project list."

I wonder if your list is as long as my list.

 

How does a 2 track roller furler work?

Using a 2 track roller furler w/all lines lead back to the cockpit:
1 when the wind picks up can one simply roll up the big gennie and unfurl the heavy air sail all w/o leaving the cockpit? This would require 2 sails to be preloaded on the furler. Is that possible?
2 Or does one roll up the gennie and then go forward to load the heavy air sail in the second track? If this is the case then why own a 2 track furler?

Have a Great Day!
Earl

 

I dont understand the point of the 2 track foil either,once you roll up the sail you can neither remove it or run up another,about the only use i can see for the second track is to run up a second sail for downwind with twin poles.
Steve.

 

Mezaire, there are basically 2 types of furlers that im aware of,the type that Brent likes which are very simple with very little to go wrong,the Simplicite,Alado,Famet,and Spin tec are all examples of this type,they all use their own halyard on the stay.I have an ancient Famet on a boat i recently bought and was going to replace it due to a couple of damaged foil sections but found i could still get replacement sections and read nothing but glowing reports online from folks who have them so i kept it but not much experience with it yet.
The second type of which you speak with the top and bottom swivels is very common Harken,scheaffer,profurl,furlex and many others all have the double swivel settup, great when they are working but a lot of things that can fail.I have installed Pro furl,Harken and Alado on customers boats and have Harken on another of my boats.I really like the simple engineering,exceptional foil design and great value of the Alado,we ordered it online and it was in our hands 3 days later in northern minnesota shipped directly from Brazil and it was easy to instal with the rig up,the customer loves it.
Steve.