Submitted on November 3, 2006 by James T. Witherspoon

Question: How does Aeroluff differ from Ropeluff for a furling genoa? What are the pros and cons of each?

Thank you
James Witherspoon

Answer: James,

Aeroluff® and the North’s Ropeluff Reefing systems are designed to do the same thing; facilitate the reefed headsail to take a flatter and smoother shape. Years back we partnered with the inventor and promoted Aeroluff® systems. For the most part they worked well. The primary advantage is that the luff of the sail was very clean off the foil. The downside to this system is that the sail’s luff tape is attached to the foil roughly only in the mid 50% of the sail. The entire luff is however also attached by means of a zipper cover that goes around the whole foil. We at times had issues where the zippers and/or the Velcro® tabs that were designed to keep the zipper from splitting, would fail due to UV degradation. This would result is the cover coming off the foil and the sail only being held by the mid luff where the foil tape was in the foil. Not a good situation. All this said, we had more happy Aeroluff® customers than unhappy ones. We have not sold this product for some time and in my quick Google search, I was unable to find a supplier.

The RopeLuff system, is by far and away our most popular headsail reefing solution. A Rope Luff works on the same principal as a foam luff pad, allowing the sail to furl around the headstay smoothly. A tapered bundle of ropes are placed inside a Dacron® sleeve and stitched to the sail behind the luff tape. The only con to this is that the polypro line bundles are somewhat bulkier than foam and certainly Aeroluff®. The pluses are that it does the job best of all. Foam tends to compress over time due to spending so much time rolled up. Once compressed, it doesn’t work and more often than not becomes an incubator for mildew. The polypro line is light, hard, doesn’t compress and is not prone to mildew.

Please let me know if I can be of more help.

Regards,
John Gladstone
john.gladstone@northsails.com

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