I know this will start another round of semi-religious rants but I need
the distraction.

I often hear people discuss Roller Furling (RF)saying that it has poor
sailing performance compared to conventional jibs, that the possibility
of its failure is dangerous and its use leads to poor sailing skills.
I used to think so too but when I got it I became a true believer.
Actually, my boat came with two good North jibs (a 100 and 150) and I
was loathe to just buy another sail and leave them unused, a RF system
with sail would cost over $3000. Eventually, I re-did many things on
my boat spending a huge amount of money and bought a RF system thinking
I would spend a lot of time single handing. I bought a larger CDI
system.

Now, I am really happy and think the RF has totally changed my sailing
life (doesnt this sound like a cult). First, it was easy for me to
install as it goes on over the existing forestay.
Second, the newer RF and sails for them enable a change in sail size of
about 30% close to the wind and far more off the wind. This means that
a 150 can become a 100 or even less off the wind. Many times I have
gone out in afternoon, put up the Genoa only to have the evening
seabreeze come up so i have to take it down. Then, do I really want to
take the trouble to put up teh 100, prob not. The reverse is also
true, many times I have put up the 100 only to have the wind slack off
so I then have to take it down and put up the 150 genoa, often I just
dont do it. With RF, I always have the right sail so I end up sailing
closer to optimally more of the time than when I had separate head
sails. So, the boat is saile dbetter more of the time than when I had
conventional jibs. Because of this, my sailing skills have improved
cuz I spend more time paying attention to how the jib sets.
I also sail more than I did with conventional jibs because there are
times when conven. jibs are too much of a pain to use. For example,
goin up and down the ICW, like most people, I drop the sails at
drawbridges for better visibility and to avoid fluky winds near the
bridges. Frequently, the jib was just too much of a pain to hoist and
drop when the distance between bridges was so short so I didnt use it.
The RF is so easy that I nearly always use it in this situation.
Similarly, in a very winding channel, sucha s the western one into
Cedar key, with a convent. jib, at least half the time the jib is
flogging like crazy cuz your heading right into the wind and drives you
crazy putting it up and down. The RF solves that prob easily.
As far as safety goes, I maintain that not going forward to haul a sail
down to change it and put another up makes use of my RF considerably
safer than without it even considering the slim possibility of RF
failure. The only failure mode I can think of for my RF that might be
a safety issue is failure to furl but that would simply involve a trip
forward to hand wind it, certainly no worse than a trip forward to
change a sail. I have only used my RF for a year now so have had few
opportunities for failure but in a year of sailing with my conv. jib I
would surely see at least one instance of halyard wrap making the jib
hard enough to drop that someone had to go forward to help it.
As far as using a storm jib with RF, there is a storm sail that slips
over the RF and is hoisted with the unused jib halyard.
My RF impressed me so much that I began to consider other things I had
always thought as useless frills, such as lazy jacks although I have
not yet installed them.