recommend me a headsail furler.

[frozenhawaiian]

Hey guys. the old Furler that came with my boat is shot so it's time for a replacement. this furler will be going on my 1970 hinckley 38. much as I like the harken MKIV it's just not in my budget so the units I'm looking at are:

harken ESP furler: fairly new on the market from what I understand. I like harken quality and product support but I'm a little wary of a "budget" furler, even from harken.

Facnor LX-165: never used them personally but my understanding is that they're very good quality.

profurl C-350: again, never used them personally but I'm told they're good quality. though not quite at the same par as the facnor and harken, price point is attractive however. the green annodizing is like nails on the chalkboard to me..

the harken and the facnor are within $100 of each other in price, which the profurl is several hundred dollars cheaper. any thoughts on these guys.

 

[HFC Hunter]

Facnor. Quality that you pay for.

Going cheap and then having a furler fuck itself, and with it the sail, or your muscles/skin? Is that original saving worth it? Hmmm.

Standing by for plenty of stories of failures on every brand, and how every other option is best, or how someone made theirs from bits of swain.

 

[Dan33]

Harken...easy to build, simple and (most importantly) parts and expertise are very easy to come by.

I have built 4 Harken and one Selden Furlex. The Furlex took longer to build than the 4 Harken units combined, but it seemed to work well.

 

[jack_sparrow]

For your type of boat there is not much between most structural furlers so pick one for size, top and bottom connections, control line take-off position, what is standard versus extra over, local after sales service/parts etc that best fits your application. Top down furler brand differences are a different kettle of fish.

 

[frozenhawaiian]

Facnor. Quality that you pay for.

Going cheap and then having a furler fuck itself, and with it the sail, or your muscles/skin? Is that original saving worth it? Hmmm.

Standing by for plenty of stories of failures on every brand, and how every other option is best, or how someone made theirs from bits of swain.

yeah I'd like to not not have a sub par furler.

Harken...easy to build, simple and (most importantly) parts and expertise are very easy to come by.

I have built 4 Harken and one Selden Furlex. The Furlex took longer to build than the 4 Harken units combined, but it seemed to work well.

do you have any experience with the harken ESP furlers?

 

[Bob Perry]

I recommend Harken. I know the people and they take good care of me.

 

[Bryanjb]

I agree with that Bob, great gear and wonderful people. I don't think they are as concerned about the last nickel, they would rather help a sailor out.

 

[Nettles]

Harken has set the standard for customer service and fortunately more and more marine manufacturers are stepping up to match it. No one tops it so far in my experience. I strongly recommend their gear. However....

I'm not that thrilled with the ESP furl. I recognize that it is a product designed for a lower price point but for my money (note that it isn't) spending the extra eight hundred bucks on the Mark IV, is well worth it. I have built a few ESPs and they perform well for my customers (so far), but the Mark IV is a much better product and well worth the extra dough (if you can pull it off).

The Profurl is bulletproof, but heavy, stiff and unserviceable. I love the Facnor line drives for their action and mechanical advantage but the extrusions are a little fragile and the last time I priced one out it was more spendy than a Mark IV. They all go together really easily.

What's the pin size, 1/2 or 5/8?

 

[WunHungLo]

Harken do make good gear, however the Furlex design (Selden) is simple to install with no screws needed to hold the foil sections together, takes no time at all to remove the drum if racing, has excellent bearings top and bottom, and solid bronze turnbuckle for easy forestay tuning.

 

[frozenhawaiian]

thanks a lot for the info guys. I really would love a harken MKIV but it just isn't in the budget right now unfortunately. WHL: I looked again at the selden furlex unit. looks like a nice piece of gear, the fact that it it includes a new forestay wire is nice, allows me to knock out 2 birds with one stone. how do you like yours?

 

[Jkdubz808]

Harken is the top of the line, Nate. I'd say go with that. My father in law put on on his Hunter 46 and he loves it.

 

[frozenhawaiian]

I use the one in my book, no problems in the 34 years I have been using it, and many ocean crossings. Cost me around $80 to build; far more reliable than far more expensive commercially made ones.

What we have been using for extrusion is 1 1/4 inch sch 40 aluminium pipe with a slot cut in it on a table saw. That needs to be sanded extremely smooth. We used to be able to get it extruded with the slot in, but no more. That may still be available in some areas. Then we weld the drum to the bottom of the extrusion and the halyad block to the top. The simplicity rig and the famet are done this way.

You then simply hoist the sail on a wire halyard thru the block, tie the end to the drum ,tighten it with a downhaul, and take the rope tail away. A freind, working for a rigger ,said a lot of people, frustrated with halyard swivel problems, were converting their rig to this system.,

We screw plastic bushings in the extrusion every couple of feet, to keep the stay centred. Been using mine since 1982, no problems.

interesting, certainly don't have the time or equipment to fabricate one myself

 

[sharkbait1]

Don't pay attention to BS, he's the equivalent to this year's GOP slate.

I.E. riding in the clown car.

 

[frozenhawaiian]

Don't pay attention to BS, he's the equivalent to this year's GOP slate.

I.E. riding in the clown car.

he seems to think that I've both heard of, and read some book of his.

 

[Jaramaz]

I recommend Harken. I know the people and they take good care of me.

Well, I recommend Furlex; I know the people and they have always taken good care of me.

Truth to be told, both Harken and Furlex are very good. Whatever you (OP) do, don't go for cheap solutions on the furler.

/J

 

[bpw]

Don't have much personal experience, but the Antarctic/Cape Horn charter fleet was almost 100% Pro-furl. Seems a pretty good endorsement to me. The boat we sailed to Antarctica had one Pro-furl and one Selden. The captain had very little good to say about the Selden and really wished they had bought a second Pro-furl.

 

[frozenhawaiian]

Don't have much personal experience, but the Antarctic/Cape Horn charter fleet was almost 100% Pro-furl. Seems a pretty good endorsement to me. The boat we sailed to Antarctica had one Pro-furl and one Selden. The captain had very little good to say about the Selden and really wished they had bought a second Pro-furl.

any reason why?

 

[charisma94]

My SELDEN is great, plenty of miles and not a problem. The only part I wish was engineered better is where the foil enters the drum... doesn't have enough "bury" for me. The twisting moment is huge right there and could do with a bit more area to handle twist... but that problem has never eventuated.

 

[bpw]

Don't have much personal experience, but the Antarctic/Cape Horn charter fleet was almost 100% Pro-furl. Seems a pretty good endorsement to me. The boat we sailed to Antarctica had one Pro-furl and one Selden. The captain had very little good to say about the Selden and really wished they had bought a second Pro-furl.

any reason why?

Don't remember the details, but even after an extensive rebuild/modification/beefing up the Selden was still causing problems. Furlers get really hammered down there, lots of days sailing in big wind with partially furled jibs while running down wind and taking big collapses and then filling with a bang. This was a pretty big heavy boat as well, being a steel 65 footer, so hard on gear.

Basically, these boats see conditions on a weekly basis that most boats will never be sailed through, and being charter boats they sail a lot of days each year, so all kinds of stuff gets broken and abused. The boat we went to Antarctica on spent the few weeks before our trip south beating upwind from South Georgia to cape Horn. Whether that kind of usage is relevant to most of us is another question.