On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:32:43 -0700 (PDT), pirate
wrote:

FWIW. my boat had in mast furling when I bought it. It took a while
to become accustomed to it, but it works. If I had my druthers I
would have a furl boom system. I found that you only furl and unfurl
on a starboard tack . A real pain if the wind is off the port. We can
furl, unfurl,and reef from the cockpit and I do like that. You give
up a battened main. The boom furl has none of the aforementioned
drawbacks and the weight aloft is also less.

There was a boat in the marina. Built in N.Z. with in boom reefing.
The two blokes that owned it had built it to participate in the
"cruising boat" class in the various regattas sailed in Asia, so I
assume that some thought had been given to the efficiency of the
reefing system - they had at least two mains that I saw. One a purpose
built racing sail.

I talked to both the owners and the only comment that they had about
the reefing system was that the makers had recommended that reefing be
done at less then (I believe) 35 degrees of boom angle.

Other then the dorky looking boom I thought it was probably the most
efficient of the roll up reefing systems.

Funny, you know. I remember when roll up on the boom reefing systems
were being bad mouthed in the sailing community. Now it is high tech
:-)


Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)