A reader with a manual Profurl NEX on a 42-footer emailed us last month asking a simple question: if the drum, the swivel and the extrusion are already bolted to his forestay, why would he pay almost the same price as a complete NEXe system just to add a motor? It is a fair question, and the honest answer surprised him. The motorisation kit does cost less than buying the whole system new, but not by as much as most owners expect, and the reason comes down to where the actual engineering cost sits inside an electric flying-sail furler.
Your manual NEX drum is not the expensive part
Open the Profurl NEXe product page and you will see two very different configurations at every power class: a "Complete" system that ships with a new drum, swivel, torsion cable terminals and gear motor, and a "Motorisation Kit" that assumes you already own the manual drum and swivel and just bolts a gear motor and power supply box onto what is already on your forestay. Logic suggests the kit should be roughly half the price, since you are not paying for the mechanical half of the system twice. Across all four NEXe power classes, that is not what happens.
What 12 to 14 percent actually buys you
At 123Furling, the price gap between the kit and the complete system runs consistently between 12 and 14 percent, regardless of size:
| Model | Max sail area / MWL | Complete system | Motorisation kit | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEXelite 2.5 | 90 m² / 2,500 kg | €5.866 | €5.183 | €682 (12%) |
| NEXelite 4.0 | 140 m² / 4,000 kg | €6.136 | €5.270 | €867 (14%) |
| NEXelite 6.5 | 250 m² / 6,500 kg | €8.663 | €7.467 | €1.197 (14%) |
| NEXE 8.0 | 300 m² / 8,000 kg | €11.511 | €9.969 | €1.542 (13%) |
(Prices for the 12V version with no remote accessory; add roughly €159 for a wired remote or €573 for the radio remote at any size.)
That is real money, and if you already own a working manual Profurl NEX or NEX V2R, the kit is still the right call over buying new, because you are not throwing away a drum and swivel that still have years of service left. But do not go into the decision expecting to pay half price for "just the motor." The gear motor, the sealed housing, the power supply box and the electronics that make up the kit represent something close to seven-eighths of what a full electric system actually costs. The mechanical half you already own is the cheap part.
What is actually in the box
The complete NEXe ships with the gear motor, a new NEX drum and swivel sized to the power class you ordered, the power supply box, a protection cover and storage bag, and the terminal fittings for your anti-torsion cable, backed by Profurl's 2 or 3 year warranty depending on configuration. The motorisation kit strips that list down to the gear motor, the power supply box, the same protection cover and storage bag, and the terminals, on the understanding that your existing drum, swivel and torsion cable terminals are staying exactly where they are. Nothing about the sail-handling side of the system changes: the same anti-torsion cable, the same tack and head fittings, the same foil-free top-down mechanism that made the manual NEX work in the first place. Only the way you turn it changes.
Why Facnor's kit saves proportionally more
Facnor builds a comparable motorised flying-sail furler, the FXE, as a purpose-built kit for its existing FX+ range, though it is not one we currently stock. A US retailer's listing for the FXE 4500 shows a complete system priced at roughly a third more than its own motorisation kit, a noticeably bigger proportional saving than Profurl offers on the NEXe. We cannot confirm that gap holds across every Facnor size or in euros rather than dollars, but it is a useful sanity check if you own an existing Facnor FX+ and are weighing a motor kit against a NEXe conversion: the two brands do not price their retrofit path the same way, and that difference is worth asking your rigger about before you commit to either ecosystem.
What to check on your existing NEX before you order the kit
A motorisation kit only bolts onto the drum and swivel it is designed for. Before ordering, confirm three things with us or your rigger: which NEX generation you actually have (a plain NEX V2 and a V2R do not necessarily share the same drum specification), which anti-torsion cable diameter your drum is cut for (13mm on the smallest NEXelite, up to 20mm on the 8.0), and whether your boat runs 12V or 24V house power, since the kit is sold as separate V12 and V24 versions rather than one unit that works on both. Getting any of these wrong after the kit has shipped turns a weekend retrofit into a return-and-reorder.
The wiring run matters as much as the kit itself. A gear motor on the smaller NEXelite sizes draws meaningfully less current at 24V than at 12V for the same power, so if your boat is still wired at 12V and you are going for the 6.5 or the 8.0, get your electrician to size the cable run to the bow before you order rather than after the motor arrives and the voltage drop turns out to be the actual problem.
Wired remote, radio remote, or the button you already have
Every NEXe configuration, kit or complete, can be ordered with no remote accessory, a wired remote controller, or a radio remote controller. The wired option adds about €159 and gives you a second control point, useful if your existing manual NEX already has a control panel location you want to keep using. The radio remote adds about €573 and lets you furl or unfurl from anywhere on deck, which matters more on a boat where the person trimming the Code 0 is not standing next to the mast base. Profurl builds the NEXe with a self-locking mechanism specifically so the sail cannot start unrolling on its own if a line jumps, a feature the motorisation kit carries over in full since it lives in the gear motor, not in the drum you are keeping.
When the retrofit is not the smart move
If your manual NEX drum is already showing play in the bearings, a cracked swivel housing, or a torsion cable that is due for replacement anyway, bolting a new motor onto worn mechanics just moves the failure point rather than fixing it. In that case the complete system is the better buy, since you are replacing the drum either way and the 12 to 14 percent you would have saved on the kit gets eaten by a bearing or swivel repair within a season or two. The same logic applies if you do not currently own a manual NEX at all: there is no kit to retrofit onto nothing, and comparing a new complete NEXe against a Seldén CXe Gennaker on price and sizing makes more sense than trying to engineer a retrofit path that does not exist yet. Our comparison of which brands actually sell an electric furler covers that decision across all four brands, and if you are still deciding whether electric is worth it at all for a gennaker, see our guide on when electric gennaker furling pays off. If you are motorising a genoa rather than a flying sail, the retrofit math looks different again, which we cover separately in our guide to converting a manual furler to electric.
Not sure which NEX generation you are running, or whether your existing drum qualifies for the kit at all? Send the 123Furling team a model plate photo and your forestay diameter at info@123furling.com, or check compatibility through the product advisor before you order either the kit or a complete system.
