Headsail furling has obvious advantages. For cruising, where comfort is paramount, the cloth is removed from the cockpit when wind picks up, before mooring, or in case of an emergency. Further, this winding technique, which is in use now for decades, conveniently adjusts the sail area. This is interesting for charterers, all new to the sport, the occasional sailor, the small crew, or an older couple. Large yachts with corresponding sail area are only possible thanks to furling.
For good reasons, furling is common on race boats as well. Aboard small keelboats like the Dragon, the Swiss Lacustre or classic Square Metre Boats, the furled jib or Genoa is nimbly rolled up when the spinnaker is up and quickly deployed just before the next upwind leg. So furling makes sailing generally easy. Ocean races such as Sydney-Hobart, The Ocean Race or the Vendée Globe are unthinkable without furling systems.
The drawbacks of headsail furling
However, headsail furling has serious disadvantages for cruising sails when used for reefing. The sailmaker on the trade fair stand will admit this as little as any salesman of a new yacht. A closer look at the disadvantages:
In strong wind, when you need a flat-shaped sail, the furled Genoa gets bulbous. Such a partly furled headsail does not perform.
The furled sail creates windage, decreasing upwind performance.
The cloth is wound around the furling tube. The pull from the sheet, irregular winding of the cloth with folds, and overstretched leeches lead to enormous wear. A regularly furled sail is ruined within a few sailing seasons.
The cloth of an awning can be rolled up evenly because it has no shape required for propulsion. So a furled headsail is a big compromise adverse to performance.
With most systems, the safety of the boat in a strong breeze relies on a thin rope to pull in the sail and to hold the partly furled headsail. Chafing and tearing of that thin rope gets the boat and crew in serious trouble.
Commonly, the drum is mounted on deck. It shortens the luff and reduces sail area, and it is ugly.
Added wear and tear with sluggish bearings in the Caribbean or Mediterranean due to salt and sand.
Problems after careless operation and forgotten maintenance.
Weight and cost.
Clever below deck installation of furling drum and vertical battens in the jib – Photo Bartels Nautik
Today, modern boatbuilding has accommodated the winding mechanism in a space-saving and elegant way. There are smart below-deck solutions for small- to medium-sized boats with cardan shafts in the deck (Bartels Nautik) or integrated into the deck (Furlex/Selden). Here the sail foot gets close to the deck. Reckmann is the expert for medium-sized to large yachts. The specialist builds high-quality systems where the furling rod is reliably locked in place by the self-locking worm gear. Some issues outlined above are thus solved.
Shapely incorporated furler with drum below the foredeck – Photo Reckmann Yacht Equipment
What remains is the poor sail shape of the partially furled cloth, the wear and tear, costs, and maintenance. The majority of boat vacationers accept this for obvious reasons.
Operation of Furler as roll-away system
Modern racing yachts such as the Imoca 60, Comanche, or the Club Swan 125 Skorpios use multiple headsails arranged in a row that are either fully unfurled or completely furled. This helps to keep going at the limit.
Cutter-rigged cruising boats have long been underway with two headstays mounted one behind the other. Here, too, the roll-away feature is helpful. A while back, I sold a Swede 41 to the Gulf of Lyon, feared for its brutal Mistral. To be on the safe side, the boat came with an extra stay for setting a storm jib, which is set behind the completely furled jib or Genoa.
Upwind with flat cloth in fitting size in a breeze – Photo Michael Amme/Swedesail
The demanding cruising sailor who appreciates the comfort and safety of the headsail furling system and a good sail shape at the same time, uses it as a roll-away system. In the morning, they feed the appropriate cloth into the groove of the furling rod according to the foreseeable wind. In the evening, when approaching the harbour, the sail is then rolled up. During longer absences, the headsail is taken off the furling system and out of the sun. As weekend sailors, they do this every Sunday. It’s a few simple actions that significantly extend the life of the sail.
Nonfurled profile headstay
Now, this is almost as tedious as setting and recovering the sail with a profile headstay. I have been sailing with such a stay since 1980. It took me a while to figure out the finesse of threading the sail into the profile. The distance of the prefeeder from the deck is important. It should not be too low because the feeding strip on the luff becomes wrinkled and jams. If the prefeeder sits too high, the wind will reach under the sail when it is set. The ideal distance between the prefeeder and the stay also needs to be determined.
And yes, it is a bit of a hassle to set the sail in the morning, retrieve it in the evening and fold it up on deck with two people. The roll, which is about 30 cm thick, is stowed in a four-metre zip-top tube and placed on the cabin roof. There are two such tubes. One for the 30 sqm jib and one for the 20 sqm strong-wind jib (Yankee). With a little practice, this is no big deal.
The effort is worth it with many years to decades of service life of the headsails made of conventional polyester cloth/Dacron and an acceptable sail shape eventually. Further, you also don’t need to consider the furling system when choosing the sail size and cut. Long battens at right angles to the leech of the jib, the uppermost being continuous as with the mainsail, provide a good, durable profile. Any sailmaker will explain this — as far as you are interested in such aspects.
Unfurled sails matching the wind last long – Photo Nico Krauss/Swedesail
Upwind joy and safety
It is a pleasure to go upwind with this, adjusting the nozzle between headsail leech and mainsail. Playing with height and speed, untainted by contemporary and comfy compromises, is wonderful with Swede 55. That is why I have been sailing Gamle Swede without headsail furling for decades. Even in strong winds, I never worry about the headsail. The headsail pulls the boat through thick and thin. A while ago, I replaced the abundantly used 16 sqm storm jib from 1980 with a more versatile 20 sqm Yankee.
Photo on top by Michael Amme: Gamle Swede with a reliable 16 m2 storm jib hoisted at a Reckmann Zwilling headstay, equivalent to the Hood Gemini head foil. Published February 17, 2023, updated October 29, 2025.→ Subscribe to the newsletter here, and you won’t miss future articles.
