Gilliane Sills
2005-10-17T15:56:00Z
We're wondering about fitting a furling jib to Miss Fidget, and would be very grateful for any advice or recommendations. There appear to be a number of companies - such as Harken, Spin-tec, Plastimo, CDI - all claiming to have the best design of system, but they can't all be right!

Best wishes

Gilliane

Gilliane Sills


Delphine, Parker 275, no. 41
frank_marsden
2005-10-19T05:06:00Z
Gillane,

On past boats I have had two different makes, Plastimo 608S, and an older design of Rotostay.

I now have a Harken, which I have not yet used.

The fundamental design principles of all are the same, with the exception that some makes have a continous line round a sheave, rather than a drum.

Despite very large difference in prices*, I found that both the Plastimo and the Rotostay worked ok, with Plastimo having the advantage that it was much easier to maintain and repair, and also was not integrated with the forestay. i.e. if you buy a Plastimo, it can be fitted to your existing forestay, the Rotostay would need a new one.

Due to a fractured stemhead fitting my forestay carried away during the 2000 ROI, It was not too difficult to strip down the Plastimo unit and staighten the bent foils.

The boat I had then had a babystay; without that the mast would probably have come down.

An important decision to make is whether you ever want to change headsails, if you do a twin groove foil is an advantage.

Also note the difference between furling and reefing.

Furling, roll the sail away completely.

Reefing, roll away some of the sail and pretend it is a small jib, which won't set too well.

Some sails, e.g. the mylar laminated sort, can be furled, short time, but are permanently damaged by reefing.

I have not forgotten the other Gibb turning black.

*Prices Harken 3x Plastimo, Rotostay 2x,

Frank Marsden

2005-10-20T12:12:00Z
We have Harken headsail furling on Pelican and it has performed very well. It is beautifully made and is very easy to use. On previous boats we have had Furlex and Plastimo systems. The Furlex was fine, but we did have a few problems with the Plastimo one.

By the way, we find if we leave the spinnaker halyard and pole up* attached to the pulpit, they tend to get wrapped around the furling gear, causing it to jam up, so we take both of these aft and attach to the grabrails whenever we're planning to use the furling genoa (remembering to flick them around the spreaders). This keeps them out of the way and stops them jamming.

By the way, isn't Miss Fidget the Super Seal that crossed the Atlantic? I read the story on the website and it was fascinating.

Best wishes,

Paul de la Feuillade

* for the pole up, we use the second headsail halyard

Paul de la Feuillade