synthetic rigging and roller furler

[Brion Toss]

[quote= Just recently before the Carib 1500 cruising rally, a Hylas jammed their conventional roller-furler with the sail half in, half out, and struggled with it for two hours. The end result? - The entire forestay came tumbling down on deck from the strain they'd put on it using the winch trying to unjam it, and the mast would have followed but they had an inner stay. Thankfully it was only on the Chesapeake, but it made my mind up.[/QUOTE]

As Mark Twain said, "If a cat jumps up on a hot stove, it will never jump up on a hot stove again. Of course, it will never jump up on a cold one, either." That Hylas was a hot stove, but a properly-installed and -used furler isn't. Nothing the matter with hank-on, but let's be fair.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[Brian Duff]

That's a funny story about the hylas forestay- mainly because I was at the depature marina for a week or more before participating in the rally aboard our schooner, and didn't see or hear anything about any forestay coming down... Might be a bit of the ol operator game there....

Headsail furling reefing gears work , certainly when installed correctly, use them with faith.
I wonder if dux would hold up better to halyar wrap than stainless? Who can test that one for us?

Eager to set my own westsail up with this stuff- just gtta sell a few boats, first

[Andy Schell]

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