Gulp! *o

[Denise, hunter 23]

WAAA sniff sniff.. got a price on a CDI furler and mods to my jib. complete job about 900 bucks! I drop off sail and forestay and pick up when complete. Somehow I thought it would be cheaper. what say da jury? the CDI is 380 on the chandlery here. This loft co. says they sell it for 500.. they need to make a profit too. I guess. they do come highly roccomended. MoorehouseSails, Medford NJDenise

 

[Mike Misko]

Furling cost

So, let's say you're willing to pay the premium on the furler itself. To finish the job, you need to shorten the forestay, extend the tang, remove the hanks and add luff tape to the luff. Is all that worth $400? I don't know what the rigging part would cost, but you've indicated that you have some capable helpers at your club. Does the loft you are talking to understand you need a longer tang (and shorter forestay)to get the furler above the deck? I've never done it, but I think removing the hanks and adding the tape can be a fairly straightforward do it yourself project. If you are willing to tackle it yourself, I'll bet you could save $300 or so, assuming you buy from this site's chandlery. This is typical logic coming from me - be advised, I usually underestimate the hassle factor, even though I basically enjoy the projects I take on. Mike

 

[Denise23309]

chilled now..

The price is for the all the work.. even the sunbrella edgeing. they will do the forestay. the sail mods, the tang.. All I do is drop off the sail and forestay. This is the copy from the Email: "The sail modification, which includes luff tape and foot & leech UV protective cover is 375.00. The hardware kit is approx 50.00. If you bring me the forestay I will cut and fit the system at no charge. It will be very easy to at that point to rig on the boat" They also are a hunter dealer. The club guys don't do sails. one makes canvas stuff. but won't do sail stuff. I'm not all that comfy with doing the work myself either. thanks Mike!

 

[Honeyman]

Worth every penny.

You'll wind up using your boat a LOT more and feel a LOT safer doing it. Much easier to singlehand. Best money you could have spent!

 

[mike]

no furler for me

I've done a lot of single handed sailing. My old boat was a Siren 17 with a small Schaefer furler. I hated it. Of course I'm sure it's not as good as the one you're getting but it would occasionally jam. It had no aluminum rod. The sail would simply furl on the forestay and was permanently up. No way to drop it if the furler jammed. It was actually a relief to have a boat with a hanked on headsail that I could easily drop. Of course the first action in a blow is to pop off the sheets and depower the headsail. Then at your leisure you can drop it. I do use a tiller tamer when leaving the cockpit. I also have my halyards led aft. I also have 4 different headsails including an assymetrical which I LOVE. It makes the difference between sailing and motoring on light air days. You CAN attach one of these to a furled headsail. When dropping the mast I don't have a big long aluminum rod to drop and store in the boat. Performance with a furled headsail has always been a concern too. Just my 2 cents. Incidentally, I believe I read where it was one of the rare 23s with a centerboard. I have a very knowledgeable friend who owned an '85 H23. If you have questions particular to that model I can put you in touch with him.Good Luck with the boat!

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

Go for it

You will love it. You will have the ability to set your jib at whatever size you want. It is a major piece of safety gear as far as im concerned. The less you have to go to the foredeck, the better of you will be. You will find that whenever you want to do anything to your boat you will always have a bunch of people telling you what is wrong with that idea. Sometimes they are right and sometimes they are wrong.Some of the people that tell you that you dont need a furler, probably have never sailed in bad weather, been caught in bad situations and never saw too many waves in very cold wet weather. I was new at sailing when I was gettin all this great advice from people about how i didnt need roller furling because it jams and all sorts of other things go wrong. Well, i usually plan my sailing by the weather reports. One day , alone on my catalina 25, with a great weather forcast for the day , all of a sudden while about 15 miles from the coast i saw the scarey black cloud line across the sky. Botton line.....front came in early by one day (dont know how the weather man missed that one just 3 hours ago), the boat started rocking and rolling violently in the 50mph winds. I was nearly pitched off the deck several times trying to get my jib down.The bow kept going underwater with me hanging on. Finally, i went down below, opened the forward hatch and kinda stretched thru it and pulled the sail down, all the while the boat was gettin flooded. I finally made it back to the dock.  Do i sound angry? If i do its because I am. After many months went by, i realized that I was gettin all this advice from what i now call 'dock queens'. They have all sailed around the world without ever leaving the dock. Almost every serious cruiser you will meet at the marina has roller furling.Its OK to whine, i always do when i spend a thousand bucks. But think of all the sailing you can do in a much safer environment. When the wind kicks up, just furl in a little. I now have a catalina 30 and take long trips , some of them alone. Without roller furling i wouldnt even think about single handing a 2 month trip.I know you will enjoy your boat much more when its all set up.OK non-furlers, fire away..........

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

Lazy Jacks

Your next project should be lazy jacks. Very simple and very inexpensive to make. Dont buy these, make them yourself. Exceptionally useful especially when single handed.Furl in your jib, drop your main in the lazy jacks and deal with main when u get back to the dock, not while out in the open water.Ok, now im waiting for the "windage" response....fire away

 

[Terry Cox]

Denise, if you decide to make your own...

lazy jack system, rig it so that you can retract it vertical to the mast from the cockpit. The PO of our H28 made his own stationary system and one or more of the battens would hang up in the system every time you hoisted the main.Terry

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

What i did was......

The first time i made lazy jacks, the battens always got hung up raising the main. Then i read somewhere on the internet that said to move the supports off of the mast and suspend your lazy jacks on your spreaders 1 foot on each side of the mast. I tried it and it worked flawlessly on my Mac 25, my Bruce Roberts 31/32, my Catalina 25 and my Catalina 30.  Also , Terry mentioned making them retractable. I did that also and i have done it 2 different ways. I'm offshore at work now , but if you are interested. i will try to explain with a sketch when i get a chance.I'm into making my sailing life easier and safer, which also means more time on the water.

 

[Spinfisher]

Tony B's reply

TonyB, I have read your take on the roller Fuler and your 50mph wind anecdote.....I do not think the H 23 was designed for 50 MPH winds, but you make a good argument for the roller.......Question, can you fly another sail if you have a roller?

 

[Timbo3]

yeah, battens in the lazy jacks

are a problem, interested in your sketch for a 30.And for the furler, if you have a problem with jamming, as mine does too, take the core out of the roller furling line up to the amount of line that gets into the roller.One boat in my marina did it last year, now almost everyone has done it. Without de-coring, roller furlings are notorious for jamming when you need to furl the most - when there's a lot of pressure against the spool.The long & short of it is that the roller furling is worth its weight in gold. I would give up GPS before the roller furling. A friend just came sailing and could not believe how easy it makes setting the sail.

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

Spinfisher

I hadn't planned on the 50mph , my catalina 25 wasnt meant for it either. I live on the gulf coast now, and i didnt sail when i lived in Arkansas. But i can tell you that the lakes there can kick up real bad with a quick summer storm and tornadoes.You can fly a spinnaker or an asymmetrical spinnaker with roller furling rolled up but you cannot fly another standard type jib or jenny with the furler rolled up. When the wind picks up, you can roll up your jib as much as need be, that's the beauty of the whole thing. The arguement arises as to how much you can roll it in and still be efficient. On my catalina 30, i can roll my 150 jenny down to about 100% and still have control and exceed my hull speed.If the wind should ever get to the point that your jib is rolled in so far as to not be doing any good, it is also the time that you probably would roll it in all the way anyhow.In Mississippi and La. most people use a 150 on their furler. Now im in south texas with much stronger average wind speed and i noticed that most people use a 135 on their furller. See what the locals are doing in your area and also the sailmaker will be your best source.You will love it. it is not a brain teaser to install your self, but you will need a helper and some physical strength. Read the instructions well, figure out what misc parts you will need, then when you go to assemble it, you will probably have to run back to the store and get 'just one more thing'.If you decide to order roller furling, e-mail me and i will help you through it.

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

yeah, battens in the lazy jacks

I'm still out in the gulf working, if i can find a scanner here i will post a sketch, if not, i will do it when i get home Wed .Glad to be of any help. You will love lazy jacks as much as roller furling, well almost.Roller furling and lazy jacks some of those things that add a remarkable amount of safety and yet add more fun at the same time.

 

[Denise, hunter 23]

make em?

Make my own Lazyjacks? Seems doable. basically just upside down rope vees on either side of the sail from under the spar? (boom) use the topping lift? Or just rig them up near the spreaders? happy thanksgiving everyone!back next week!Denise

 

[Terry Cox]

Hi Denise, check out the following...

website...http:www.boatus.com/goodoldboat/tamers.htmIt tells you how to make and operate your own lazy jack system. Looks pretty good. I just skimmed it so study it closely before you proceed.Terry

 

[Mike Misko]

Lazy Jacks

Hi Denise - plenty of good ideas in archives for making lazy jacks. The link below is what I did, and it cost next to nothing. I installed it tossing the lines over the spreaders, making a loop, run the bitter end through the loop then pulled it to snug it up to the spreaders. When using the sail cover, I just unhook the lines from the cradle part and secure them at the mast. This winter I will attach small blocks on the spreaders a few inches away from the mast and run the lines through them and back down to the cabin top. This way I will be able to raise and lower the cradle without fussing around at the sail and will be able to lower the cradle and slacken off the lifting lines while underway, again without reaching up the sail or detaching the lines to store at the mast. Best part is that if I mess up experimenting, cost is nothing and adjustments are easy. My thought in putting the blocks a few inches out on the spreaders is to open the cradle a bit to minimize snagging the battens. I'm not concerned about putting a load on the spreaders because all they really are supporting is the tension in the bungy line cradle. Tom - where ever you are, thanks for a simple solution and well written instructions.