Hi. Does anyone have experience using a Parasailor? Good, bad, indifferent? I have a Pacific Seacraft Crealock 31’ and am considering a transatlantic sail either singlehanded or with 1 crew. I’ve read and heard positive things about how forgiving they are in squalls, etc. but curious for the group’s collective wisdom.

I have a quote of ~$5K for one so it’s not cheap but if it does everything the marketing brochures claim it does, I’m willing to spend the money. Thank you.

+x

 

Geir Ove Bø - 5/5/2020

we have a 105 m2. on our cat,  and it is easy to handel.  it is very strong,  can take a lot of wind.  and it is a very soft puller.  if i can use those words,  if you comp it to a normal spinnaker, that will snapp your line and put a lot of force to everything, one the rig.  the parasailor pulls gently,  and it does not hurt your gear like a hard working spinnakker will do. here is a film from our first sail.  with it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7uKokn3Wlk,  sorry for bad english.

A  few years ago I was helping a couple who had recently bought a boat and were planning an Atlantic crossing. They had bought a second Parasailor which still had cost a considerable sum of money even though they had inherited a cruising shute with the boat. As mentioned in earlier posts its a well made bit of kit but we decided that if the wind increased and there was only one person on watch the boat could feel scarily overpowered.
They successfully made their Ocean passage but I am pretty sure they didn't use the Parasailor at all.
For my own East to West crossing I decided a Parasailor was way beyond my budget and we crossed 'Goosewinged' with a preventer on the main and the kicker quite tight to stop any chafe and the yankee poled out with pole held by uphaul,downhaul and a guy led aft to fix it in position.
With this set up it was faily easy to roll in some of the headsail and reef or shake out reefs in the main. Also the Monitor windvane steering did its job without difficulty.
So Dan, unless you have large cruising budget, I would consider what else might be worth buying instead.