Robbin, I went to roller furling on my M17 years ago and never regretted it, and I race all the time. The secret is a luff pad (from Elliot-Pattison) on the genoa that allows the sail to retain shape when partially rolled. I saw that Deale was featured in the Real Estate section of the Washington Post yesterday. Do you live in Deale? Rick M17 #633 Lynne L On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 8:41 AM, Robbin Roddewig < robbin.roddewig@verizon.net> wrote:
Hi Bruce, I had been using hank on for years on my M-23 and recently put a new set of sails on and upgraded to roller furling after an instructor that did lessons on our boat for my wife and I said that roller furling would be a big improvement in safety. My 23 has narrow side decks (as all do I think) and no life lines. So going forward was a challenge and I figured if I lost some racing performance with the furler sail it would not hurt me too much! Although crewing on other boats I see quite a few racing boats (including the Bennateau I am on) that have furlers. What I have found is that since I dock the boat I only have to deal with the extra hardware (or the riggers do) twice a year and it makes going sailing much faster. I am out on the water quicker without having to mess with the head sail and having a beverage faster at the dock when coming back in. You just pull on lines to unfurl and furl and reducing sail is a breeze (pun unintended).
So I have been very happy with the roller furler. Your mileage may vary.
Thanks Robbin M-23 "Pinch Me" out of Deale MD
On 9/14/2014 12:58 AM, Bruce Ward wrote:
anyone have a comment on their experience with roller furling on their M23? my Ole'Body does not work so well with going forward single handed to hank on a smaller jib when the wind pipes up. I'd appreciate hearing here or off list . Thanks,
Sent from my iPad