Need help with Furler and broken extrusions

[PrincessoftheLake]

On my Hunter 40.5 today whilst trying to hoist the jib the swivel at the head of the sail stopped about 7/8ths of the way up. Rolled it up as best I could under the circumstances. Had a guy up the mast today who was able to free and what he saw was that the two top extrusions had pulled apart by about 6 inches. He said there were no rivets in the top section. My thought is the repair should be to simply pull the extrusion back down and pop a rivet in to hold it in place. The furler is a Hood 950. Below is a picture of the extrusion. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this is the best approach? Is there any reason to job detach the jib forestay and lay it on the dock to do the repair? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Ah, Princess. Too bad you don't have a Furlex. But, I know you found the problem. The boatyard messed up. It is good that they will fix it for you.

 

[DougM]

My next door neighbor had the same thing happen with his Hood furler. Perhaps a bit more severe than first appeared. He ended up having to find a whole new section as his fractured. As I recall, he had some minor difficulty locating the part. The fix required pulling the entire furler off the forestay to repair it. He had a rigger help him, but it only took a couple of hours. The worst part was sliding the furler back up the forestay. While the stay was disconnected, the main halyard and the spinnaker halyard were used as temporary forestays. The entire job was done at his dock.

 

[Benny17441]

Bringing the headstay and furler down takes 5 minutes for a skilled rigger. The job can be done better, quicker and more cost efficient with the unit on the dock. It affords the opportunity to inspect all parts includying the headstay wire which is hidden under the extrusion. Worn parts can be replaced and the unit can be properly assambled and adjusted. The quick repair you consider may or may not be possible depending on how easily may that extrusion be compressed back into place while working 50' up in the air. Did not look like the guy you sent up was able to just pull it back into place.