Experiences with continous line furlers?

[Jak Mang]

On a recent offshore passage on a friend's boat we had the roller furler control line chafe through twice. I believe this was due to a block breaking on a previous leg and having been replaced in a different position, though it might have been because of some overrides on a sloppy furl combined with strong wind. The chafe seemed to have been from the line on the drum.

Having all that canvas out there in rising winds made me a bit nervous. It takes a while sitting on the bow to make the 50 or so turns of a new line on the drum while getting plastered by waves. If there had been a bowsprit it might not have been doable.

I am in the market to replace my hanked on jib with a furler. I was wondering if the continuous line systems would help to alleviate these issues. I'm not sure if an intermediate reef position is maintained by tension on line or some mechanism in the body of the "drum".

Thanks,
-jak