Answer to Ben's comment below
31 July 2009 | Playa del Coco
RC
The boat came with no roller reefing and time and money caught up with us in the preparation so that we never added it. Mandy is very simply rigged and it would have meant adding rope clutches etc and having one further line running along the side-deck. I think the old arguments against it are now passé since the technology has advanced so much. It would be good not to have to go out on the widow-maker. Also with the very variable winds we have had down this coast it would be easier to change up and down gears with roller furling. Storage space given over to multiple headsails is also an issue.
All that said we are now used to it and it has become little bother. We have a downhaul spliced to the halyard which makes it easy to haul the sail down. With the addition of the jib net it is not too difficult to tie it down there and either wait for suitable conditions to remove it or run off and get it done.
We use three headsails; the working jib (tanbark in the photos), a much larger high clewed genoa and the very large nylon drifter. This we sometimes sheet through a snatchblock on the end of the boom, since with the main on hoops it is difficult to work out an easy way to mount a spinnaker pole. We also have two storm jibs but have not used them since above 25 knots we drop the headsail and use reefed main and staysail.
The jib-net is invaluable for capturing the jib when it drops or the crew when they slip, but I am not sure whether it would be an improvement if the boat had roller furling. Occasionally it is a nuisance when anchoring or handling lines forward.