Schaefer roller furling

[Scott]

Hi,
I am looking at an old schaefer furling system with the forestay that is built into the sail. I have no experience with such a system and would like any opinions on whether it's worth bothering with. Seems to me it wouldn't be much good if a person had to partially (or wanted to) furl the sail which in this case is a 150 genoa.
Thanks, Scott

[Tim]

There are a few anachronists who still like those sorts of archaic systems, but those all-in-one systems weren't much good for efficiency or sail shape even in their heyday 30 years ago, and they certainly pale in comparison to today's excellent furling systems.

Those systems are furlers only, not furler/reefers like today's systems. You cannot partially roll the sail. That said, they do work as a nice simple way to roll up your headsail for storage, and if you want you can then just lower the whole thing. The luff tends to sag, since it's difficult to get sufficient headstay tension, at least as compared to running the sail up the headstay as in modern systems.

For the right price, and with the right expectations, something like that could be just the ticket for you. Just don't expect any more than what you'll actually get.