Changing from stand alone furling gear to headstay

[John Jamieson]

Hello,
I'm considering purchase of a Cape Dory 28. The owner replaced the existing headstay with furling gear. I've always liked a simple headstay and hank on headsails. I do not trust such a rig and would want to replace the gear with a beefy headstay and the necessary hardware. Is this a difficult or expensive modification?

[Matthew Sebring]

No, it's neither difficult nor particularly expensive. Talk to a local rigger about replacing your furler with a standard forestay and a sailmaker about replacing the lufftape on you jib with a set of hanks.

[Brian Duff]

Whats wrong with the furler ?

Headsail roller furling and reefing gears have become safe reliable equipment , found on nearly every boat, and will function perfectly as long as installed and set up correctly.

What kind of furler ?

That said - my last boat had no furler, but that was becasue I couldn't afford one !

[John Jamieson]

Probably nothing. But then again, it adds complexity. And without redundancy, that could be a problem. There is no removable inner stay for hanking on a mule or worker when the wind pipes up. The owner on this boat has no other headsails other than the furling 140.

It's very difficult to get a sail to set properly once you start rolling her up in a breeze. Start rolling and the center of effort moves up, just when you need it lower. Tensioning the luff is another problem as is controlling draft. Foam luff pads help, but its still quite a compromise.

I have yet to sail on a boat where furling in a breeze produced anything close to the shape attainable with a hank on sail. Sailmakers design each sail to meet a specific condition. A small blade jib gives great windward performance in tough going. Not so with a half or 3/4 rolled up genoa designed for moderate air.

Furling gear is a wonderful invention and certainly has it's place. I prefer to keep things much more simple aboard my own boat.
Best - J.

[Ian McColgin]

Most furlers have the foil right over the stay and with the right directions you or a rigger can get it off. But you're looking at modifying your big jib and buying a smaller one anyway, so why not keep with the furler and just add a 100% jib?

G'luck

[John Jamieson]

This particular boats furling gear completely replaces the existing headstay. At the very least, I would add a removable inner stay for hanking on a jib or low aspect ratio lapper. Over the stay type furling systems make more sense to me.
Best - J