Alado or Simplicite Furlers

[dpcolohan]

Hi !
I am researching roller furlers for the foresail on my C&C 27. Does anyone have experience with Alado [Brazil] or Simplicite [Quebec} roller furlers? They are a lot less expensive than Harken, Profurl and their like. Do you always have to cut a genoa to fit a furler ?

Advice welcomed.

[Joanb]

I bought an Alado roller furlernfor my 1979 Lancer 30. It works great! We bought a new genoa 130 and just came back from a 10 day dtrip to Loreto in the Sea of Cortez. The furler worked great even under difficult wind conditions. Most of the time I could furl it by hand without a winch. If you need to buy a roller furler without spending a lot of money, I would recommend Alado.

[drynoc]

I bought an Alado for my Santana 35, and it works reasonably well. It is certainly the least expensive available, and that makes all the difference. The instructions are poor and you have to be able to figure out a lot of the installation yourself. On the other hand, you can install it yourself without too much trouble, and it is simple enough that I believe it will be trouble free (to the forestay) for a number of years. I can also roll the foresail up without the use of a winch, but to make it tight enough for the UV cover to completely cover the sail, I need to use a little winch power. I recommend the Alado also, because of the price and because of the simplicity, but be prepared to make adjustments to the initial installation until you are happy with it.