Replacing the Jib Furler

When we bought Seaquestor (June 1996), she was equipped with a Hood Seafurl 810LD jib furler. That furler uses a continuous furling line, fed through a sheave on the lower unit, similar to the self-tailing unit on a winch, to turn the furler extrusion (for furling and un-furling). I quickly discovered that when the jib was partially furled, a gust of wind could overcome the friction between the furling line and the lower unit on the furler. In other words, when sailing with a partly furled jib, a gust of wind often caused the sail to un-furl completely. This problem meant that the furler was exactly that (a furler) and that it wasn't safe to use it for jib reefing. I immediately started to think about replacing the furler, although the price of a new furler was a bit daunting.

When Seaquestor was hauled for the season in October 1996, the yard's rigger inspected the rig. He noted that the top of the fore stay had come unlaid just below the swaged on eye fitting and that the top bearing on the furling extrusion was missing. Further examination of the lower unit on the furler demonstrated that its bearings were very rough and in need of replacement. Consequently, the yard advised me that I should replace both the fore stay and the jib furler. They recommended a Harken Unit 2 furler and quoted me a price around $3000. Since this seemed a bit excessive, I decided not to do anything until I had the opportunity to examine all of the components myself.

Due to work commitments and weather conditions, I was unable to visit the boat over the winter. However, I decided to build a new stay myself and to repair the furler and keep it for at least another year. Consequently, I ordered new bearings for the lower unit and a new top bearing for the extrusion. The total cost of those parts, including shipping, came to $28.00. I planned at that point (early January 1997) to repair the furler and build the new stay in April on my first visit to Seaquestor for the season.

On my way down to visit the boat in April, I stopped off at Hamilton Marine (Searsport, ME) and picked up the wire and Sta-Lok fittings that I would need to build a new stay and a new turnbuckle (total cost $235.00 including tax). During my examination of the furler/stay combination, it became obvious that I would have to disassemble the furler in order to replace the fore stay. After considering my options, I decided to replace the furler as well as the fore stay. Since buying a new furler was an unbudgeted expenditure, I decided to do it as cheaply as possible (i.e., do it myself and use an inexpensive furler). I also decided to stay with a Hood SeaFurl because the length of the extrusion would not change significantly with a new drum type furler, so that I would not have to have my jib re-cut. Thus, I went back to Hamilton Marine and bought a new Hood SeaFurl 800SL ($1115). I should point out that the SeaFurl 800 SL is a conventional furler with a drum lower unit and a round extrusion with two opposed sail grooves (i.e., the grooves are on opposite sides of the extrusion). This furler is not connected to the fore stay, so the normal integrity of the rig is maintained. I then set out to build my new stay and furler.

I started construction of the new stay and furler on Sunday morning at about 9:00 A.M. The tools that I had with me included: 10" adjustable wrenches (2), hack saw, 50 foot metal tape measure, roll of black electrical tape, hammer, and a center punch. I started the job by dismantling the old furler. That involved cutting the fore stay, with my hack saw, just below the top swaged-on fitting and sliding the stay out of the furler extrusion. I left the old furler put together as a length reference. I then tied the old stay to the trailer hitch on my truck, taped the end of my measuring tape to the stay so that the end of the tape was flush with the end of the swaged on fitting at the lower end of the stay and pulled the stay straight to measure its length (to the point where I had cut it off). To that length, I added the length of the top swage eye I had cut off, measured from the point where I cut it to the center of the hole in the eye. That gave me the desired length for my new stay. Note that I made each of these measurements four times to be absolutely certain that I had it right. The next step was to cut the cut the wire and install the lower Sta-Lok fitting. To get a good cut through the wire, I taped it tightly with electrical tape and then cut it off with my hack saw. The electrical tape prevented the 1x19 wire from coming unlaid during the cut. I then attached the Sta-Lok fitting by simply following the instructions, with the addition of using some Lock-Tite on the threads. I used the two adjustable wrenches to tighten the fitting. I then used my measuring tape to mark the desired total length of the stay with electrical tape on the uncut end of the wire. The next step was to build the new furler extrusion.

I built the extrusion for the new furler on the rack where the old furler was located. The Hood SeaFurl extrusion sections are held together by inserts that are hammer riveted in place. Basically, I passed the partially completed stay through the lower unit of the new furler and then fed extrusion section onto the stay. I riveted each extrusion section to the lower sections as I built the furler (it took about 2-3 minutes to connect each new section). When I got to the point that the next section of extrusion would make the new furler unit too long, I carefully aligned the new furler with the old furler and cut (with my hack saw) the final extrusion section so that the new furler would be exactly the same length as the old unit. I then riveted the final section of sxtrusion into place and installed the top bearing for the furler. Before finishing the stay, I slid the upper swivel unit up and down the new extrusion to make sure that it moved freely, which it did after a bit of extra hammering on a few of the rivets. The final step in the construction of the new furler/stay combination was to cut the new stay to length and install the top Sta-Lok eye fitting.

The installation of the top Sta-Lok fitting required cutting of the 1x19 wire to the correct length for the completed stay. I had the total length of the completed stay marked on the wire, so I disassembled the Sta-Lok fitting, slid the lower nut onto the wire and laid the upper part of the fitting beside the wire with the center of the eye aligned with the marked length of the stay. I then marked the wire for cutting based on my experience with the Sta-Lok fitting I had installed on the other end of the wire. I cut the wire at that point with my hack saw, after wrapping it in tape as before, and assembled the fitting. When that fitting was completed, the job of building a new stay and furler was done. All that remained to do was to disassemble the old furler. I did that by driving my center punch into each of the hammer rivets that held the extrusion sections together. I then cleaned up my work area, put the old furler into the box the new one came in and was ready to head home at about 3:00 P.M.

Overall, the job took me approximately 6 hours and cost $1378.00. After the furler was installed on the boat, I spent another $75.00 for the furling line and several lead blocks. We had no trouble with the new furler during the 1997 season after I experimented a bit with the locations of the lead blocks for the furling line. If I was going to do it again, I think the job would only take about 3 hours, because I now know how to do it.

As I noted above, I took the old furler home, where I installed the new bearings I purchased. I then installed that furler on my 24 foot Challenger sloop. Click on this link to read about how the installation of the old furler on the Chinook worked out.

This page posted 23 December 1997 by Todd Dunn expet@unb.ca

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