Furlers
Furlers do work, and they work great when installed and maintained. Just offering an alternative solution, and enjoying the discussion.
Brian (Duff), we met at the 1500, I was talking about the synthetic rigging at the skipper's meeting, and was aboard your schooner...anyway, I actually helped the guys with the broken furler as it was happening, rowing over in the kayak from the boat I was on to help them get it down. They had engine trouble as well, so we stood by waiting for them to get the sail down to give them a tow...they struggled for 2 hours before it finally broke the forestay right after I arrived - the furling drum had jammed, and the strain they placed on it with the winch trying to make it turn had unscrewed a norseman/stalock fitting on the forestay at the masthead, so they speculated that it was indeed installed incorrectly. It happened at night, and didn't get much attention since they got it fixed so quickly. The rigger's that the Carib 1500 works with made a super effort getting them a new Shafer gear and forestay, installed before the race start. So I don't think it was operator error, just a bad install perhaps? I think the system was fairly old as well, though not sure how old.
Anyway, just offering my ideas. I still think hank-on is the way to go, for me, on a small boat anyway, and it doesn't mean a furler is not...to each his own.
-Andy
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