The admiral has agreed to my capital expenditure request for a furler. Boat is a Hunter 23.5 . Jib is hank on in fair condition. Leading choice is the CDI ff2 no bearings. Hoping to reuse the 105% jib. It looks like the price here is pretty good on the CDI ff2. My big question is how do I get the jib modified? Russell Hunter 23.5 in Dallas area.
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My experience
My H23.5 is a 1995. I bought it 3 years ago so the jib was 8 years old when I had it modified a year later. The sail seemed to be in fair shape. The local dealer sent it to a nearly local "loft" but he did a poor job. I sent it to North Sails to have it redone. The results were great. They remove the hanks and maybe cut a bit of the luff off and put on luff tape which has what I would call a bolt-rope sewed in. This slides into the slot in the furler foil. North Sails also strengthened the tack, clew and head and replaced the leech line v-cleats on the foot and leech (the latter I asked for). They suggested and I had special white 4 ounce self-adhesive Dacron stuck and sewed on for UV protection. It's light-weight and easy to deal with (compared to a heavy dacron sewed on or a heavy dacron jib sock). Given that is is stuck and sewen on, the sail is made a bit stronger and might last longer (they said). I chose the Schaefer Snapfurl 500 and am very pleased. It has bearings. I've seen the CDI up close but not sailed with it yet. The flat foil was broken in half. I much prefer the Schaefer. Once you get a furler, or even before, talk to a sail loft and they will tell you what they need to know. If you add UV protection to the sail, they need to know which side to put it on. This means you have to decide which side of the boat the furling line will run along (back to the cockpit). But wait! You also need to decide which side of the furling drum the line wraps around. For example, my furling line is on the port side. However, as you look at the drum while sitting between the mast and the bow, the furling line crosses from the port side of the boat to the starboard side of the drum. The result is that the port side of the jib is on the outside when rolled up, and that is the side that has the UV protect stuck on. If I ran the furling line around the port side, then the starboard side would be the exposed side. The reason for crossing over was to have better clearance so the furling line doesn't rub against the bars or cage that goes around or encloses the drum. Oh, you probably know already that the H23.5 fractional rig should not use any bigger of a headsail, so don't worry about trying to decide if you should buy a larger genoa if you decide to replace the current one. ...RickM...
My H23.5 is a 1995. I bought it 3 years ago so the jib was 8 years old when I had it modified a year later. The sail seemed to be in fair shape. The local dealer sent it to a nearly local "loft" but he did a poor job. I sent it to North Sails to have it redone. The results were great. They remove the hanks and maybe cut a bit of the luff off and put on luff tape which has what I would call a bolt-rope sewed in. This slides into the slot in the furler foil. North Sails also strengthened the tack, clew and head and replaced the leech line v-cleats on the foot and leech (the latter I asked for). They suggested and I had special white 4 ounce self-adhesive Dacron stuck and sewed on for UV protection. It's light-weight and easy to deal with (compared to a heavy dacron sewed on or a heavy dacron jib sock). Given that is is stuck and sewen on, the sail is made a bit stronger and might last longer (they said). I chose the Schaefer Snapfurl 500 and am very pleased. It has bearings. I've seen the CDI up close but not sailed with it yet. The flat foil was broken in half. I much prefer the Schaefer. Once you get a furler, or even before, talk to a sail loft and they will tell you what they need to know. If you add UV protection to the sail, they need to know which side to put it on. This means you have to decide which side of the boat the furling line will run along (back to the cockpit). But wait! You also need to decide which side of the furling drum the line wraps around. For example, my furling line is on the port side. However, as you look at the drum while sitting between the mast and the bow, the furling line crosses from the port side of the boat to the starboard side of the drum. The result is that the port side of the jib is on the outside when rolled up, and that is the side that has the UV protect stuck on. If I ran the furling line around the port side, then the starboard side would be the exposed side. The reason for crossing over was to have better clearance so the furling line doesn't rub against the bars or cage that goes around or encloses the drum. Oh, you probably know already that the H23.5 fractional rig should not use any bigger of a headsail, so don't worry about trying to decide if you should buy a larger genoa if you decide to replace the current one. ...RickM...
Think about this
I've installed furlers on several boats. Your choice of CDI should be good. About your present jib, I always had a sailmaker, remove the old hank on snaps and install the needed taped luff. It's not inexpensive. Next if you leave your jib furled, it's subject to UV damage from the sun. A colored sacrifical strip also installed by sailmaker would remedy this, but also expensive My 2004 Hunter 240 has the entire jib made out of UV protected, dacron. Might be better to check into a new jib, with furling tape and UV material. They offer sails thru this Hunter forum Good luck
I've installed furlers on several boats. Your choice of CDI should be good. About your present jib, I always had a sailmaker, remove the old hank on snaps and install the needed taped luff. It's not inexpensive. Next if you leave your jib furled, it's subject to UV damage from the sun. A colored sacrifical strip also installed by sailmaker would remedy this, but also expensive My 2004 Hunter 240 has the entire jib made out of UV protected, dacron. Might be better to check into a new jib, with furling tape and UV material. They offer sails thru this Hunter forum Good luck
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