![]() Bamar does not neglect the smaller end of the market and has recently introduced a new line of electric furlers for cruising boats from 40ft to 100ft. ![]() ![]() As Profurl says, the energy it takes to roll up a genoa is equivalent to running an incandescent light bulb for 20 minutes.īamar (left) Facnor (middle) Furlex (right) BamarĪmong other things, this Italian company builds bespoke furling systems and sail-handling equipment for superyachts, so its engineering chops are not in doubt. After all, the engine is usually running when you’re making or striking sail. The 30 seconds or so of current at 60 amps that it takes to unroll a sail just isn’t a big factor anymore. They carry bigger battery banks than in the past and with most cruisers now adding solar panels to engine-generated power, the demands of yet another electric motor are not felt the way they were years ago. The increasing popularity of electric winches and furling systems-not just for genoas but for mainsail furlers and light-air sails as well-is partly due to the increased electrical capacity of modern boats. You will also have to run cables aft from the control box to the switch gear, which will be at the helm. You need to know what you’re doing-it may be more than just a simple matter of splicing into windlass or bow thruster power cables. Will you be replacing the headfoil, or can the motor be installed on the existing parts? What other rigging work will need to be done? Are you competent enough to do it yourself, or will you employ a rigger? What about the electrics? These are low-voltage motors, but the currents are high. “The uptake is on boats above 35ft where the sail plan is larger and the value of the boat justifies the cost of the upgrade,” he says.Īs with any other boat goodie, the cost of upgrading to an electric furler can escalate far above the price of the components. “Otherwise, it’s too complicated to install one, which is why most retrofits, and indeed most OEM installations, are electric units.”įurlex’s Scott Alexander says there’s little point in installing an electric furler on boats below around 35ft. ![]() A French company, Wichard owns Facnor and Profurl, which both have been making powered units for many years. “If your boat already has a hydraulic motor on board-for instance, if you have a hydraulic bow thruster-then a hydraulic furler might make sense,” says Mark van Note, marketing manager for Wichard USA. Most furling-gear makers offer hydraulic and electric versions alongside their manual units, and electric units, in particular, are becoming more popular as retrofits to older boats. That’s why a dedicated winch for the headsail makes sense-and the next step up from that is an electric furler. Sure, if the boat has powered primaries you can lead the furling line to one of them-as long as it’s on the same side of the boat and not occupied by the jib sheet, which is the case only about 50 percent of the time. Speed is of the essence in such situations to avoid damage to the sail, which always loads up in a blow, and poor cousin Elmer, cranking away on the kind of undersized winch typically devoted to the furler, often takes way too long. Naturally enough it was the big-boat crowd that embraced powered furlers with open arms rolling up a flogging genoa when you’re overpowered in a rising gale is a gnarly enough job on a 40-footer, let alone on a shorthanded 50- or 60-footer. This boat has an electric furler for the big Code 0, while the smaller self-tacking jib stays manual
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