The Original Alado Roller Furling & Reefing since 1992
Busting Myths about Alado
There are a few articles floating around the web, that depict an inaccurate & unfair assessments of Alado products.
We keep our prices low by not spending millions on marketing... Let this article set the record straight about our designs.
Myth Number 1
"It also leaves you with 50 foot of halyard at the drum"
The Alado system uses its own halyard (s) which run vertically along the foils. You simply cut what you do not need.
Approximately 2-3 feet of excess line is used to tension the genoa/jib and is secured at the drum.
Myth Number 2
"The poor design quality of alado this top foil block section using 2 pieces which clamp onto the top of the foil. A good design would be through bolted, tapped,or riveted into the foil rather then relying on 1" of foil slotted into the top just compressed. I'm sure it will work its way out. "
No Top Sheave assembly has ever broken apart in our 32-year history. The point of assembling two pieces around the interlocking foils with stainless bolts and nylock nuts is to allow the user to assemble and disassemble the system easily. The first two foil lengths in the top sheave are 5 foot and 2.5 foot respectively.
Myth Number 3
"the foils these fouls seem pretty robust however once again I'd like to see some sort of mechanical fasteners. (Harken uses tiny hex bolts )( plastimo is rivitted which makes plastimo a throwaway unit if the foils come apart like many do)
Our interlocking aluminum foil provides full lateral strength of the entire foil. A mechanical fastener is not needed.
Myth Number 4
"Now to the drum; it's almost comical that the drum doesnt lock onto the chain plate to keep it from turning with the furler. Instead you run lines to your life lines!!!
The drum consists of an inner and outer section which are press fitted together for permanent lifelong wear. The outer lower drum is secured to the solid Bow Rail, by means of a braided line or a stainless-steel tube with a rail fitting. The advantage of this means no stress on the chain plate and easy access to the turnbuckle.
Customer Service & Support
Our sole mission is to provide customers with unparalleled products, customer service and support.
Aladofurler.com is a 100% USA owned business.
All purchases made with us can be shipped anywhere in the world and are warranty & service supported exclusively by us.
If you buy directly from the Alado factory in Brazil, you will pay more, receive Portuguese speaking telephone support and Alado USA cannot support products we have not sold.
Questions? Call Us Directly... you will always get our technical experts on American Soil. We Promise!
Roller Furling Designs and Applications
Since the first conceptual idea of sailboat roller furling was developed in 1907 by Major E du Boulay in England, the "build a better mousetrap" philosophy has improved the design and performance of many roller furling systems which is a positive for sailors.
There have been many years of debate and interpretation by sailors, rigging experts and “armchair” critics about systems and applications.
The result can often be a very confusing and sometimes uninformed opinion base by some authors of what is available and what works best.
Most of the articles that we found online identify 3 types of Roller Furling systems:
Head Swivel, Wire Luff and Internal Halyards.
Each of which has its own unique design characteristics and challenges when things go awry...
Head Swivels use bearings that can fail and twist halyards.
Wire Luff Furling is hard to reef when loaded, sagging tendency.
Internal Halyards inside the extrusions are hard to increase tension under load and not easy to change sails.
But wait… they missed the best one…
The Alado Roller Furler ... Independent Halyard(s) / Self Standing / No Bearings to Fail system that assembles on deck without going aloft.
Alado Roller Furler uses a simple but effective design that addresses three very important aspects that appeals to cruisers and racers alike.
NO Swivels or Bearings
This means zero chance of Jib Halyard Wrap and Failure.
If you have experienced other roller furling systems that use a Jib Halyard to "lift" the sail up, then you probably know that a swivel must be used to prevent twisting of the halyard. But..., what happens when the swivel ceases to work? The Jib Halyard becomes twisted and eventually breaks...leaving you without a sail.
Similarly, with bearing loaded drum systems, if the bearings fail, you are either unable to deploy or even worse, unable to retract.
External /Independent Halyard(s)
Yes you can install two halyards and use either as a system spare or use both to be used with the included double luff feeds.
The independent halyards run along the outside of Alado's exclusive interlocking aluminum foils.
Form an "endless loop" of each halyard between the Top Sheave and the Drum with the bitter ends both fastened to the top of the sail and the excess line is fastened to the Drum.
This allows (1) the sail(s) to be hoisted and let down independently.
(2) Full tension can be applied without affecting the shape of the sail under any wind load and does not put any tension on the forestay rigging.
(3) WYSIWYG - "What you see is what you get" meaning that a visual inspection of the halyards is possible just like all external halyards
(4) this frees up the Jib Halyard for other uses such as winching a dinghy on deck, rescuing an overboard object and even making fast that favorite Bow Hammock!
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The Original Alado Furler
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