I recently purchased CDI roller furling for my hunter (90} 27 . Has anyone installed cdi flexable roller furling.I am thinking of doing it myself. .
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Tough Job
This is not as easy as it may look - I speak from experience here. Be prepared to cut your headstay, or possibly even replace it. Accurate measurements and following directions to the letter are critical for success. MC
This is not as easy as it may look - I speak from experience here. Be prepared to cut your headstay, or possibly even replace it. Accurate measurements and following directions to the letter are critical for success. MC
Doable
Last fall my mate and I installed a CDI Furler on our 27' Cherubini 1976 Hunter. While the task was not as easy as it may look, it is not a difficult as some would have you believe. Its a piece of cake with either the mast down or the headstay off the boat. We did it with the headstay attached at the top. Patience is the key here. Accurate measurements are critical. To find the length of my headstay, I tied a piece of line to my jib halyard, raised the halyard to the top of the mast, stretched the other end to the bow fitting and marked that point on the line. I then lowered the line and measured it from the mark to where it attached to the halyard. This gave me the dimension which I used to cut the CDI extrusion per their instructions. Here comes the tricky part: First you must secure your mast by attaching your jib halyard to the bow fitting to keep your mast from tipping toward the aft part of the boat. I guess if your forgot to secure the mast it could fall backwards. Don't know, don't want to know. I secured mine. I then disconnected the jibstay from the bow fitting. I advise that you count the exposed threads on the turnbuckle so that you can at least get back to where your started from when your reassemble the fitting. Now, here comes the real tricky part: You have to feed the CDI extrusion up the jib stay. The CDI instructions tell you to feed a line through the center hole of the extrusion. Try as I might I could not feed a line through. I next attempted to just feed the extrusion onto the headstay. All went well until the extrusion was about 2/3 of the way up the stay. Thats about where one loses control of the whole thing, what with the extrusion waving around in circles about 25 to 30 feet in the air. I'm sure that our new dockmates thought I was a lunatic. It was here that we stopped work, put everything back together, hanked on the jib and went sailing. During the next week I was able to acquire a piece of wire, actually an old headstay, tied it to the end of the headstay on the boat and easily fed the extrusion on as far as possible and then clamped off on the headstay wire to keep the extrusion from sliding back down. I held the extrusion up while my mate clamped around the wire with vise grips, using my little finger as a cushion, to keep from damaging the wire during clamping. A piece of rag works much better and is less painful. The next operation is simply following the CDI instructions for assembly of the drum. While assembling the drum don't allow your mate to drop the large washer overboard as this can put a strain on your relationship. Mine did, it did. We recovered the washer, reassembled everything and went sailing. What a pleasure. Our next project is either lazyjacks or a dutchman. Then I shouldn't need a mate at all.
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Last fall my mate and I installed a CDI Furler on our 27' Cherubini 1976 Hunter. While the task was not as easy as it may look, it is not a difficult as some would have you believe. Its a piece of cake with either the mast down or the headstay off the boat. We did it with the headstay attached at the top. Patience is the key here. Accurate measurements are critical. To find the length of my headstay, I tied a piece of line to my jib halyard, raised the halyard to the top of the mast, stretched the other end to the bow fitting and marked that point on the line. I then lowered the line and measured it from the mark to where it attached to the halyard. This gave me the dimension which I used to cut the CDI extrusion per their instructions. Here comes the tricky part: First you must secure your mast by attaching your jib halyard to the bow fitting to keep your mast from tipping toward the aft part of the boat. I guess if your forgot to secure the mast it could fall backwards. Don't know, don't want to know. I secured mine. I then disconnected the jibstay from the bow fitting. I advise that you count the exposed threads on the turnbuckle so that you can at least get back to where your started from when your reassemble the fitting. Now, here comes the real tricky part: You have to feed the CDI extrusion up the jib stay. The CDI instructions tell you to feed a line through the center hole of the extrusion. Try as I might I could not feed a line through. I next attempted to just feed the extrusion onto the headstay. All went well until the extrusion was about 2/3 of the way up the stay. Thats about where one loses control of the whole thing, what with the extrusion waving around in circles about 25 to 30 feet in the air. I'm sure that our new dockmates thought I was a lunatic. It was here that we stopped work, put everything back together, hanked on the jib and went sailing. During the next week I was able to acquire a piece of wire, actually an old headstay, tied it to the end of the headstay on the boat and easily fed the extrusion on as far as possible and then clamped off on the headstay wire to keep the extrusion from sliding back down. I held the extrusion up while my mate clamped around the wire with vise grips, using my little finger as a cushion, to keep from damaging the wire during clamping. A piece of rag works much better and is less painful. The next operation is simply following the CDI instructions for assembly of the drum. While assembling the drum don't allow your mate to drop the large washer overboard as this can put a strain on your relationship. Mine did, it did. We recovered the washer, reassembled everything and went sailing. What a pleasure. Our next project is either lazyjacks or a dutchman. Then I shouldn't need a mate at all.
.Done It
I've installed a CDI flexible furler on two boats. A Catalina 22, and last year a Hunter 31. The biggest problem without a doubt on the larger furler was that the fuler extrusion is shipped curled. It is an absolute bear to straighten. I had six guys on it and still we couldnt manhandle it. CDI offers an option to have it shipped straight. It is about $100 bucks but WELL WORTH THE MONEY. Other than that the system is a piece of cake to install in just an hour or so if the mast is not stepped. You might have to modify the head stay to fit thru the extrusion. Make sure you check that out as well prior to purchase. Considering the price, which was the primary motivation to buy this system over some fancier systems on the market, I've had good luck with both furlers.
I've installed a CDI flexible furler on two boats. A Catalina 22, and last year a Hunter 31. The biggest problem without a doubt on the larger furler was that the fuler extrusion is shipped curled. It is an absolute bear to straighten. I had six guys on it and still we couldnt manhandle it. CDI offers an option to have it shipped straight. It is about $100 bucks but WELL WORTH THE MONEY. Other than that the system is a piece of cake to install in just an hour or so if the mast is not stepped. You might have to modify the head stay to fit thru the extrusion. Make sure you check that out as well prior to purchase. Considering the price, which was the primary motivation to buy this system over some fancier systems on the market, I've had good luck with both furlers.
Done It
I've installed a CDI flexible furler on two boats. A Catalina 22, and last year a Hunter 31. The biggest problem without a doubt on the larger furler was that the fuler extrusion is shipped curled. It is an absolute bear to straighten. I had six guys on it and still we couldnt manhandle it. CDI offers an option to have it shipped straight. It is about $100 bucks but WELL WORTH THE MONEY. Other than that the system is a piece of cake to install in just an hour or so if the mast is not stepped. You might have to modify the head stay to fit thru the extrusion. Make sure you check that out as well prior to purchase. Considering the price, which was the primary motivation to buy this system over some fancier systems on the market, I've had good luck with both furlers.
I've installed a CDI flexible furler on two boats. A Catalina 22, and last year a Hunter 31. The biggest problem without a doubt on the larger furler was that the fuler extrusion is shipped curled. It is an absolute bear to straighten. I had six guys on it and still we couldnt manhandle it. CDI offers an option to have it shipped straight. It is about $100 bucks but WELL WORTH THE MONEY. Other than that the system is a piece of cake to install in just an hour or so if the mast is not stepped. You might have to modify the head stay to fit thru the extrusion. Make sure you check that out as well prior to purchase. Considering the price, which was the primary motivation to buy this system over some fancier systems on the market, I've had good luck with both furlers.
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