Jib furler with no halyard

Jwhy

.
Feb 11, 2013
98
Catalina 320 Kilmarnock
My new to me Catalina 34 has a furler with a wire that holds the head of the sail to a roller apparently clamped to the forestay. There is no halyard. I’d like to drop the sail.
Do I need a rigger to go up the mast and disconnect the thing?
Can a halyard be added?
 
Feb 26, 2004
22,760
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Sounds like a CDI furler. I had one when I got my C34 in 1998. I couldn't get it down either. I left it up while I saved my pennies for a new furler, and in the process the UV strip disintegrated, ruining the edge of the sail, which I cut down to an 85% from the 110.

You might need to do some research on it.

New to you C34? We invite you to join us on the C34 website, in addition to this fine forum.

www.c34.org and the forum there: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/board,11.0.html
 
Sep 29, 2008
162
Morgan Out Island 33 Pompano Beach
Tie a line to the tail piece of the furler wire. It should be a long as your mast is tall. Uncleat the tail piece and lower the sail.
Bob
 
Jul 6, 2013
221
Catalina 30TR, Atomic 4 2480 Milwaukee
If it’s a CDI furler, then it’s like Bob said.
If the sail doesn’t slide down easily, then there’s a jam somewhere. In my case, the sheave at the top was badly worn and the cable had jumped off the sheave. I replaced the sheave and all was good. I did this with the mast down.
 
Jan 7, 2011
4,727
Oday 322 East Chicago, IN
I have a CDI furler, and it works ok, but raising the sail is hard. A few tips:
1) when lowering the jib, make sure you first have a strong messenger line tied to the metal slug that is pinned about 2 feet from the bottom of the furler. As the sail comes down, that slug will slide up the furler foil. To get the sail back up, you will need to pull hard on the messenger line.
2) be careful when unpinning the slug. Mine had a cotter pin through the furler foil and the slug. The first time I took the sail down, I got some pliers on the cotter pin and yanked it out...the slug was pulled up up the furler foil (it is under some tension), and caught me close to my eye. Luckily, I had sunglasses on that took the brunt of the hit.
3) When raising the sail, use soap or sail-coat on the rope bolt as you are threading the sail into the foil slot. Also, put some lubricant on the metal slug as it will ride in the foil slot and easily binds.
4) when putting the sail up, thread the messenger line through the sheave just above the furler drum, and then pull up on the messenger line. This keeps the pull on the slug straight in line with the foil track. Pulling down on the messenger line any where but straight in-line with the foil track makes the job almost impossible...don’t ask me how I know.

I like the CDI, since I don’t change the jib during the season. Getting it up can be difficult (but tip #4 is a big help). Once up, it works fine. Pulling the sail down is not difficult.

Greg