All,

Is there anyone out there that can support the thought of converting the jib sail from a roller furler to a hank on sail?  What are the pros & cons of both?  Which do you prefer?  Is it really that much less convenient to have a hank-on?  I'm redoing the rig anyhow with soft rigging (Colligo Dux).  If there is a strong case, I may have a nice used Harken to sell. 

TJB

I had a hank on headsail, but ended up going to a roller furler. I simply roll out the sail when I need it and roll it back up when I'm done.......great!

I have hank on yankee & staysail.  I occasionally consider roller furling until I'm on a boat with roller furling and (maybe I've just been unlucky but) it seems like every time some line gets jammed up in the roller, or the sheet parts or gets jammed in the leads, etc..  Then what do you do? And of course it always seems to happen at the worst possible time.  And there you are, in worsening conditions while a manic headsail is snapping around your head and you are trying to figure out how to get it under control.

I single-hand so I ascribe to the K.I.S.S. methodology.  When the weather hits the fan I really don't want to be fighting both the weather and some piece of equipment at the very end of the bowsprit as well.  For me it's those times when something goes wrong that cancels out whatever convenience it might offer 'most' of the time.

I don't find hank-on headsails a problem.  When I want to douse I just head up, let loose the halyard, the sail falls on deck and I lash the length down the deck to three/four stanchions with sail ties. When I want to put it back up I just remove the sail ties and haul away.  I DO find netting from the bow pulpit back to the 2nd stanchion (or so) keeps the sail on-board.  It's no fun trying to drag a sail that has dropped in the water back on board.

Mike, I was worried about the furler getting fouled up as well, but that has proven to be unfounded. I did pay attention to the routing of the furling line especially how the fair leads are set up and I'm careful to have a little tension on the furling line when rolling the sail out..so far no problems.

Mark,

If you go to the Colligo Dux website, they have a PDF of a Westsail 32 they rigged for the Annapolis Boat Show.  They did everything, but the roller furling fore stay.  It looks very salty (and sexy on a W32), and in my opinion it is a very cruiser friendly alternative to wire rope rigging.  It is commonly used in commercial fishing, so has proven to be durable.

Storytime:  I was sailing on my friends cutter/ketch one evening, and upon returning to harbor the staysail furler fouled at 1/4 rolled and would not furl.  Mind you, it is very breezy and very bumpy.  I had to try to keep the boat pointed into the wind so the skipper could furl it by hand.  He couldn't even pull the sail down b/c of the partial furl.  It took 20 minutes to get it to a mostly furled state, which the sail kept flogging and beating all the way to the slip.  Now, if he was single-handed then he may have been in trouble.  In his defense, he recently stuck ~$6000 into his new Schaefer furling units, and they are admittedly smooth and undeniably convenient.  These furlers work too good now because they unfurl so fast that the furling line jams, and jams hard. 

Another friend's racing yacht: on several occations the furling line jammed at 3/4 un-rolled.  The pitch point and load on that line makes me shutter just thinking about it.  It is tough to undo, and very inconvenient. 

I am attracted to the hank-on option for the simplicity.  I understand the short-comings, and I know a little extra effort will be needed.   I think a properly rigged down haul could douse a sail just as quick, but still one would need to walk up the foredeck to stow the sail in a bag or remove all together.  Thanks to everyone for the wide spectrum of feedback.

T.