Courteney, I am opposed to jib furlers on principle, you would be too
if you had one that broke the top swivel and jammed just as you were
trying to tack off a lee shore.

I had to lower the headstay and all the mess hanging off of it, after
getting the motor going to head away from the rocks. I spent half an
hour wrestling the mess aboard. I fixed it, replaced the head
bearings, staked the nut securing it, rehoisted it the next week but
never trusted it and then vandals burned the boat next spring.

I will never feel comfortable with roller furling again, especially
since it seems to me it does not help with performance, only making it
too easy to drag too much baggy jib around, sheeted outside the
shrouds.

A smaller jib, trimmed flat and sheeted inside the shrouds will almost
always go to windward better than a too big baggy one outside. If it is
small enough to be self tending, it means that going to weather in a
narrow river channel where I do most of my sailing, is way easy. The
lack of delay in getting the jib set perfectly means I get to weather
much faster and easier, with no chance of blowing the tack and having
to head off to accellerate back to speed. A smooth and gradual hand on
the tiller will conserve energy in the tack much better than quickly
horsing the tiller hard over, and is easier to concentrate on if not
puzzling over a recalcitrant genoa at the same time. Besides which, a
big baggy jib acts as an air brake going to windward.

You have seen enough advice here about handing the barrel of the winch
with the sheet still on it, you have seen suggestions that you ready
the lazy sheet with 2 or 3 wraps before tacking, and you have seen the
advice to pull the sheet straight up to release it as soon as the luff
goes soft, all of which I have practiced for many years, until I made
my self tending jib rig. You will still need to haul mucho sheets to
get it set, and hopefully, the clew knot will not snag a shroud, as
mine most always seemed to do when tacking a genny.

I suggested that if you have two winches, you might not even need a
winch handle, using the hip between two winches trick. I call it the
hippy hippy shake tack.

It is my feeling that a genny is seldom of any beneficial use when
going to windward, as a smaller flat, inboard jib will do better, and
is more easily managed.

Going to windward, the apparrent wind is higher than the true wind, so
if there is 10 knots or better true, a small jib will balance the helm
much better and point higher than a too large one.

Terry K