We have nothing but praise for Rogin Taylor, the owner of Reefurl roller reefing furling systems. We met with him on Friday at the Airlie Beach public jetty where he inspected the damage to our two furlers and advised what needed to be done. To cut a story short the furlers we have are not his and appear to be a copy. So no warranty job, but a terrific service.
Rogin could easily have said ”bad luck, not my problem” and sold us two of his complete furling systems. Instead he did his utmost to provide replacement parts for what was needed and to make improvements to our set up while keeping the costs down.
We spent the weekend in Nara Inlet, an anchorage sheltered from northerly winds to enable us to properly fold our two sails and remove the staysail furler in flat water. There is nothing worse than working up the mast in choppy water! This was the first furler which Rogin worked on. We brought down the genoa furler and stay on the Monday once the staysail furler repairs were completed.
Wade about to release the top of the Staysail furler. It is attached to our topping lift and I lowered it down on the deck.
The staysail stay and furler are down!
Wade disconnects the inner stay and furler unit from the deck so we can lay it flat and out of the way.
Now for our followers wanting to know the nitty gritty, here is a bit of technical information with photos to help explain. The first image is a sample of what the properly constructed foil should look like. The orange PVC tube is where the stay is fed through. The stainless steel stay does not touch any metal and fits snuggly so it cannot move.
This is what the inside of the furler foil should look like.
This is what our staysail stay and existing foil look like – can’t see a tube for the stay and the foil rests on the swedging. You can see the start of some wear on the right side of the aluminium foil. It is much, much worse on the genoa foil with a 3 inch raggedy tear on the side.
Existing staysail stay and foil before repairs
The top of the genoa furler – scary!
The damaged part of the foil was cut away and a new section with top block riveted on.
New top section for the genoa furler
As for the stays themselves, we inspected them when they were down. Luckily they were not damaged.
All the work was done on Monday for a quarter of the price of two new Reefurl furlers. It was a major job which took all day, but it is done. We finished putting the stays back up under torch light!
Men at work!
We think we provided an interesting challenge to Rogin who was amazed the original gear lasted for so long! We will need to get our two sails shortened a little bit at the top to fit properly with the new set up. The drawing explains how this is done.
The new set up is a serious improvement on what we had. It will make it much easier to furl and unfurl the sails. And god forbid if we ever get a tear in one of the jibs, we will be able to get it down and back up without needing to climb up the mast at sea – an important safety feature.
New pulley system to avoid having to climb up the mast if we need the sail dropped or raised
We were blown away by how accommodating and resourceful Rogin was. Any yachtie interested in the Australian made Reefurl system, check out the website. Interestingly our sailmaker Frank Hammond from Horizon Sailmakers recommended Reefurl as a significantly cheaper yet solidly made alternative to other overseas systems.
Sv-Anui 
Wow, I’m glad you guys got such a good price. The Genoa Furler was looking horrid! I am glad it won’t fail you guys now while at sea. 😎
Hi John – yes the Genoa Furler top was ghastly. All good now.
Pleased you got it sorted and it is an improved system. 👏
Major work out of the way, now off to the sailmaker to get the two sails shortened! We might be operational again by tomorrow.
when I made up the furler for Catnap I had already bought the Ronstan drum & swivel. I bought the section for the furler from Reefurl. They were prompt & easy to deal with. (If I hadn’t already had the fittings I’d have bought their furler complete at about the same total price).
Hi Don – they are very well made and Rogin was incredibly helpful. Thanks for visiting.
I think that the Genoa Furler broke at the right time, fortunately. Now you have a better system which is much easier to handle under any similar emergency. Take care Chris. 🙂
Thanks HJ – yes lucky Wade noticed it at the marina and we have been able to get everything sorted quite quickly. Back to island life tomorrow!
Hey guys, well done on another improvement!! You have had your share of challenges. We toasted you from Sorrento’s on Sunday afternoon after we realised you had parked out the front. We are one of the many Snell’s in Pioneer Bay. Ours is called Que Sera. We love it. Give us a hoy if you would like to catch up. We are heading to Hamo Friday to pick up friends and do the Whitehaven thing for a few days. Take it Easy! Regards, Jase and Sal. 0418202406
Hi Jase and Sal – nice of you to visit the website and say hello! We are picking up our sails tonight and heading off to the reef tomorrow. If we get a chance we’ll come looking for you, if not have fun with your friends and we’ll catch you around at some stage!
Your experience here must be gratifying and assuring for the future; well done to all.
We are in Urangan, heading off tomorrow.
Yes, another new bit of equipment and experience!
Not too far to go for you to Southport!
Good feeling when you get the right tradies that know their job & a fair price. I will look them up if I need them.
Well worth it, Mick. He knows his stuff, is super helpful and we reckon he does not charge enough for his time! Can’t believe our luck!
Great going folks, see you can have a win now & again, but I can see you are having a good trip by your story and writings. Have a safe trip.
Great cruising punctuated by fixing things in exotic locations as they say!