Forums, Mast, Rigging and Sails, Facnor Asymmetric furler

Nick Howes at 11/03/2014 00:12:36
I bought Quest a couple of months and find I have a cruising chute by Hyde sails which has an attachment point for an umbilical line, suggesting it must have been designed to fly on a Facnor Asymmetric Furler. Does anyone have any experience of these furlers ? I would be interested to know if they are of value especially for single handed cruising ?

Thanks, Nick

George Isted at 11/03/2014 19:32:40
This may help from about 19 minutes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjJzNf4sioA
Edited: George Isted on 2014-03-11 19:33:31

Silver Harmony at 18/03/2014 08:02:03
Hi Nick,

I haven’t used the Facnor gear myself but Webb Chiles describes using one during one of his circumnavigations in his book “The Fifth Circle” and says it totally changed the way he sails. (The boat is a 37-foot Heritage One-Ton sloop.) The ease of setting and dropping the spinnaker means he uses it a lot more and carries it for longer because he doesn’t have to worry about getting it down.

I have a North Sails asymmetric spinnaker on Silver Harmony which I rarely use, partly because I haven’t found a good way of dropping it single-handed. I was thinking of selling it but having read Webb’s book (which you can download as a pdf from his web site http://inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/books.html) I think I’ll keep it and add a furler to the list of “maybe one day” upgrades.

Robert.