Good sailing this past weekend. Furler was a fine addition

[tjspiel]

Fresh breeze and sunshine for virtually the whole weekend. Prior to my vacation I'd only been out twice and the wind was light on both of those occasions.

This weekend I actually used the furler to reduce the area of the head sail and it's nice to have that easy option. And it was also nice to keep the foredeck clear for leaving and returning to the buoy.

The hank-on jib + downhaul worked fine but this is much better. Worth the bit of extra hassle when rigging.

[Riggerdood]

Glad to hear you got the furler all sorted out Tom.

[Brian N.]

Glad the furler is working to expectations. When I got "Peptide" I vacillated between furler or not, and I decided on the hank-on jib, because I normally set up by myself. Still it would be nice to take in a bit of the jib on some days.

[Quantico Frank]

Agree with Brian. I had a furling jib on my P15, but it caused me problems, some of which were likely user-errors since I was new to furling jibs. Right now very happy with my hank-on with downhaul.

[tjspiel]

Brian and Frank, - I think it's one of those things that depend a lot on how you use your boat. I anchor a lot and pickup a mooring ball just about every time out so having easy access to the anchor locker and a clear foredeck are valuable to me.

With the hank-on jib it seemed was always trying to push it to the side to avoid stepping on it. And the furler saves a bit of set up/put away time since I don't have to flake the jib and stuff it into a bag. Not that it took much time but the little things add up.

The downside to a furler is that it's not as easy to access the forestay turnbuckle and when stepping the mast you have to manage the extrusion instead of just worrying about the light and very flexible (by comparison) forestay. And if you're in a slip or on a mooring ball, your jib is always exposed to the elements. I added a sacrificial UV strip to the jib which helps of course but it increases the weight of the sail.

[Quantico Frank]

Nice that you were able to sew on that UV strip! I had a jib sock when I had the P15, and it worked fine, but an extra step. I do really miss the ability to reduce the size of my headsail, but it also works out well with the P165 to strike the jib altogether, although others have commented on reduction of performance. And maybe a furler's a necessity if you're racing like RonD does.