It would be great if someone tried this out. I can't help thinking though, that a spin that satisfies the mid-girth rule, even if you could furl it, is not going to roll up into a neat package.
Scarecrow hit upon the solution earlier, have a look at
http://www.facnor.com/uk/products/asym_spi_furlers/default.asp which sort of explains it a little.
Nothing very fancy just use a standard furling drum with D12 as the furling line and note the very neat mod of putting a short line to the centre luff edge of the sail, it pulls the centre of the sail in before the ends, it just a matter of adjusting that length to get the smallest tightest roll on the D12.
Problem 1 - Even if you rolled up a perfectly flat hooter, it would have a very significant diameter. All that is up in as drag and in the air you want to be clean as it hits your driving sails. A mid pole snuffer system is tucked down where there is already disturbed air and quite a bit of serious testing in the Tornados showed it added negligible drag to the platform.
The advantage is that they are nearly self deploying. My experience with roller furling on other boats, it is likely to be as difficult to even more difficult to roll up. Either way for the 1 up guy 2 hands are needed to do it fast.
On the very few times I have seen them used on cats they appeared essentially non-competitive. There were other problems and issues, so a true comparison was not had. Logically it just doesn’t to appear that there is enough apparent wind generated to make a hooter perform better than a spin. We have already seen where super flat spin cuts are just not as effective as some others across the range of conditions down wind. For the odd condition or race like super light air where you can have a huge jib effect, or beam reaching they would be great. Upwind - downwind give me spin.
