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Mike,
I've done similar research as you are doing on furlers. In my opinion, the Alado is a knock off of the CDI conceptually. It looks OK but I agree with another poster that Brazil is a long way to go for service. (IMO) The CDI (even the biggest one with the bearings) is not meant for us traditionalists with the big heavy displacement cutters that go offshore. (mine is 39' 23500 lbs FULL keel). The Spintec is really interesting, but with two potential problems. First is as another mentioned, getting the sail down under truly adverse conditions. (I furl up my yankee way before this could happen and never (so far) hoist my genoa.) The second one is if you loose tension on the furling line without noticing it and then try to furl. There is a large chance that the furling line might have fallen off the drum and below the bottom flange. To be fair, I email conversed with one guy that has the spintec who loves it and never had any problems. But he only had it for ~1 year. There is al
so a cheap furler marketed in the US by Sail Care, manufactured by Z Furl / Z Spars / U.S. Spars. It looks OK in that it is fairly traditional except for it's mast extrusion. (I still question the concept).
To date, I have still not purchased the replacement for my old broken and jury rigged Hood furler. I guess it will be another season before I do. I'm still leaning toward the big 4 (Shaffer, Profurl, Hood, or Harken, in that order for me).
Good luck and let us know what you finally decide and how you like it.
Brian
s/v Calico Jack
Landfall 39 Pilothouse Cutter (no, not the C&C)
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