Abandonned roller furler

[Marek-Beyond]

Hello guys!

Just reaching out to you to get more toughts on my side.

I recently bought a boat with hanks headsails. I am mostly going to sail single handed and was looking foward to get my hands on a furling system. Fortunately for me there is an abandonned sailboat(bigger than mine) at the marina where i am at mooring. I asked to get information on it and i have permisson to go on it and salvage what i want. It has a decent looking furler on it from what i saw.

Should i go trough the hassle of removing the roller furler from the other boat and putting it on mine?(including modifications to sails)

Thanks

Marek

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Not enough information such as mfg, model, what boat it is on now, age and so on. Then condition of it. Photos would be helpful

 

[Marek-Beyond]

Ok so i dont know any info on the other boat it is full of water and everything is faded on the boat i am going to the marina tomorrow and I will take pictures of the furler. From what i see the boat is probably from the 60's and the furler was added in the 2000's i would say it looks almost new! I'll bring photos back tomorrow

 

[Ron20324]

If it is still there tomorrow, take a freebie when you can get it. You can always put it back.

 

[agprice22]

Your forestays would need to be similar length and width (1/4, 9/32) to be useful. If your forestay is shorter, the other boat's foil may work after you shorten it. Also, your headsail will need to be modified. Do not get to chasing a white rabbit. You could spend a lot of money, a few dollars at a time, trying to make it work. A new foil, a modified sail, some furler parts... a thousand dollars goes by quickly.
A furler is a nice convenience though. I enjoy them.

 

[Joe]

If you want to start single handing right away, it is much cheaper and simpler to rig a jib downhaul. It will allow you to control your headsail from the cockpit. At this point you have no idea what this freebie will provide and whether you can adapt it to your boat, not to mention converting your sail....

If you do a quick search (top of page) on this site, there are a few threads on jib downhauls. With an inexpensive block or two and some inexpensive small diameter line you can rig this up in an hour or so.
The jib downhaul will allow you to drop your headsail on deck from the safety of your cockpit.... even going downwind. It will keep the sail secure on the foredeck. It will not allow you to reef.... but there's a chance the furler in question may not have that option either... you just don't know yet.

So... set up the downhaul... and in between having fun sailing, you can figure out what you need to know, and what you have at hand, to proceed with the RF conversion. Good luck...

 

[Marek-Beyond]

Thanks for all the help I will consider the downhaul whilst getting everything setup for the roller furler i found!

Thanks!

 

[SailormanDan]

I rigged a downhaul and that made it easy to get the jib down on the deck and out of the way when I was coming into the marina, but went to a roller furler when I got a new sail and much prefer the furler over a downhaul. The line and blocks I rigged for the downhaul were re-used for the furling line on the roller.
You will have to convert your jib and can get materials from SailRite to do that, but you might want to look at the age / quality of the sail and replace it instead of converting it.