Seems they always fail in situations like this.

Wrong. They rarely fail in situations like this.


Dave wrote:
There's a classic case of ships passing in the night. Joe meant that when
they fail, it's usually in conditions like this. Doug replied that they
usually work, including usually working in conditions like this. Aside from
Doug's word "Wrong," the two statements are, of course, not mutually
exclusive.

If the roller furlers work only a small percent of the time
"in situations like this" then it is wrong to say that they
always fail. In other words, the two statements *are*
mutually exclusive.

When a survey taken of serious long-term passagemakers
includes gear, roller furlers are almost always regarded as
among the most reliable gear on the boat. In fact I recall
seeing a survey of a large group (20) of circumnavigators,
none of whom reported a single roller furler problem.

In other words, there is no reason to assume that roller
furlers suck, unless
1- you have another agenda wholly divorced from reality
2- you assume that the given roller furler is not sized,
installed, or maintained correctly
3- you can't afford a roller furler anyway and are bitter &
spiteful

I think Joe is somewhere between 1 & 2. The Crapton was a
strong 3. Maybe somebody should google up of Jax's
pronouncements on roller furlers, that might be amusing.

DSK