Setting up Roller furling on O'Day 272

[cbourne200]

I have bought a 1987 O'DAy 272. EVERYTHING is 'new to me' I've sailed a smaller sailboat for 35 yrs. No roller furler.

I don't know what type (Harken, CDI, etc...) furler is on the boat, or whether it is the original furler. On the lower drum, there is a metal arm that comes off the drum that has a hole in it - I asume the furling line goes through the hole...

But the big question is, How do I raise the Jib?

There is a single 1/4 " line coming from the mast head. Apparently it is affixed to the furler since it wraps the furler when I turn the furling drum. I don't see any way to get this to deck level to use to raise the Jib (if this is what the purpose of the 1/4 " line is).

Do I need to take the furler apart (appears to be an 'internal forestay' design as when we pinned the forestay, we used the furler base to pin to the stemhead fitting.)?

Before I screw up something, or lose somethng overboard trying to figure this out, can anyone with a 272 give me some advice on what I'm doing??? Or if anyone knows what furler I have (see 'arm extending off drum that has a hole in it for furling line'), please pass along any/all information you have regarding this device!

Thanks a million!

Charles

 

[gjaffess]

Hi Charles - I have a 272le with a CDI flexible furler. If you go to the CDI website, I believe there is a diagram of the setup. It's not the best system, but it came with the boat when I bought it and it works. Spray the track where the sail fits in with Sailkote and don't raise the jib if it's windy. It helps if 2 people raise the sail. One to feed the sail into the slot and the other pulling the halyard. You will love the boat especially with the furler on a windy day. The 272 is not the fastest boat and it doesn't point into the wind as well as other boats (because of the keel) but it is a very comfortable. I have owned many sailboats, but this is my favorite. Not too big (you can single hand most of the time) and not too small for coastal cruising. I'm not sure you have a CDI, but if you do - you have to add an extra piece of line to the halyard so the halyard line doesn't fly away from you and wind up at the top of the mast. Then you have a problem. You can email me at sgjaffess@gmail.com if you have any other questions. I'm down in Ocala for the winter where I have a Compac Suncat on a lake. Steve

 

[bria46]

I have a Furlex on my 272. Any properly sized furller will do. Have it professionally in stalled. Your jib sail will also require moding with luff tape. That will have to be done by a sail loft.

 

[cbourne200]

Thanks Bria46 & gjaffess.

Bria46 - too late to have it done by a pro - unless we drop the furler (or maybe the mast). Since this was already installed, and mast down, and my inexperience with a furler, I didn't examine while in down position. I understand how to feed Jib into slots to raise Jib, but don't see any way to raise it... I'll take some pics today when I go down to reinstall water pump.

gjaffes - I may be contacting you concerning this setup. I've had a couple people tell me it is a CDI furler - but I haven't a clue... Did you/have you had an occasion to drop mast/furler? How does furler jib halyard attach to furler? I have a diagram from a website (can't find website now, and don't now if I can attach to this message) called 'InstallingRollerFurlingUnit' which shows 2 attachment points - a 'Halyard Shackle' mounted to the top of the furler, and a 'head shackle'. AHA! Found how to attach files - this is from a website NOT from my boat. May/may not be similar to my setup. Hope it comes through...

Obviously there is something holding the furler up the forestay, but I haven't sorted through all the lines to find it. I do have a 1/4 " line that looks like it may connect to the furler, but not sure to what point. And it only reaches to deck level. Still trying to figure out what line goes where...

Will return tonight with some photos that may mean somethin gto someone. If I haven't already said so, the furler came already on the boat, and the person I bought it from was not the owner - he was just a salesman who transported the boat. So he has no historical knowledge of this particular boat. There is nother 272 in the marina, but I haven't met the owner yet. Maybe I can get some tips from him.

Thanks

 

[cbourne200]

Pics of Unknown Roller Furler

Here are pictures of the unknown roller furler. Several people hae told me it is probably a CDI furler - but I don't know one way or aother.

One person at the marina indicated the 2 groove extrusion had one for the jib, another for some form of slide to attach to the sail to raise it. Aother person from another list referenced a CDI Reefer II. This is most promising information yet, but I don't have either of the cam activator (attaches to the Jib Halyard) or the other piece that attahces to the jib.

Does this seem feasible? Does the line already there indicate something may just be pulled to the top of the track?

 

[tedsbeds]

Re: Pics of Unknown Roller Furler

I have the same boat with the same set-up. The CDI uses an internal halyard that rides in those two luff grooves in the foil. At the top of the foil extrusion there should a cap with a roller in it. Across this roller goes the halyard returning down towards the drum. There are two slots in the foils near the drum. The jib halyard goes up one groove and down the other. It exits the foil near the bottom and doubles back through a block and is tied off to a cleat. With this set-up your jib halyard is contained inside the foil and the sail when it wraps up eliiminating the need for a top swivel. Your halyard must be small enough to ride in the luft groove and long enough to be twice the length of the head foil.
Hope this helps.
Ted

 

[cbourne200]

Pics of my roller furler

Guess pics didn't go through on last post. Try again...

 

[tedsbeds]

CDI furler

This is the link to what I believe is the proper CDI furler.http://www.sailcdi.com/sprimain.htm

 

[cbourne200]

Re: Pics of my roller furler

Tedsbeds - that sounds pretty iffy... There is no line that came with the boat that is small enough to ride up one side of foil and long enough to extend down other groove back to deck level...

What do you do with the halyard (twice the length of the foil) when the jib is in place? That's a lot of line to have to place at the bottom of the drum...

Can you look at my pics and comment on whether this looks like yours?

Many Thanks

 

[tedsbeds]

Re: Pics of my roller furler

After looking at your pictures this is exactly what you have. One end of your halyard looks to be stuck up near the top of the furler. You can actually slide the whole furler assembly off the head stay with out taking the mast down. The mast must be secured from falling with a temporary head stay such as the main halyard cleated off to a bow cleat. But for sure your halyard is stuck up the head foil furler.

 

[tedsbeds]

If you look at the parts manual they list a 1/4" x 65' for the halyard. I had the same rig on a Catalina 25. Off the top of the furling drum was a small set of double blocks. I would run the halyard through the blocke and back up to the cleat and back down to the blocks again to take up the extras line. Once you hoist and lower the sail you know exactly how much line you need for the job.

 

[cbourne200]

'Stuck near the top of the furler'. So it is not permanently attached at the top of the furler? Thw other part - 'halyard needs to be twice the length of the furler - mine is only from top of furler to near deck level. Maybe prev owner decided once raised, he didn't need the extra length and cut halyard to be single length of furler? Sounds plausible - once aloft, how often does it need to be lowered?

Now, how to get it from top of furler w/o dropping mast or taking the headstay loose?

Thanks Tedsbeds!

Charles

 

[tedsbeds]

If you have a low bridge or a high dock near by motor up close and see if someone on the dock or bridge can reach your masthead. Otherwise youmast go up the mast of the furler must come down.

 

[cbourne200]

I was afraid of that...

So, to bring down furler, using either 'normal jib haylard' or Main halyard - tie off to cleat on bow of boat. Remove headstay with furler. Can I remove screws from furling drum so it can be split apart w/o removing headstay?. Extrusion is held to drum 'assembly' by clevis pin. Then start sliding sections of furler off... I don't see anything holding furler sections together, so conclude they just slide together. Continue until top of furler is at deck level (or I can hook top of furler halyard). Then decide which system I have and parts I need (already fired off an e-mail to local CDI store (100 mi away) with pics and request for quote on needed parts). Hopeful they have parts & knowledge to get me going... Don't particularly want to drop mast... Bridges? We're at sea level and most 'bridges' are no higher than 15'. Little commercial traffic, so most bridges are low. Those that are high (a bridge with 65' clearance is close to marina) have no low part over water... At 210 lbs and no bosun chair, there is no way to get to top of mast. How about a 'mtn climber rig' - I've heard some people refer to prussik (?) knots to 'clinb the mast'...

Thanks for the help.

Charles

 

[tedsbeds]

There are mast climbing systems that use ropes and ladders. I have used a mast mate which is a nylon webbing ladder that fits in the sail track to climb a mast. The sections of the furler are held together by "torque links" which are aluminum extrusions that fit inside between each section. Once you remove the turnbuckle from the bottom end of the head stay the whole asssembly should slide right off. The only complication I had was that the stud at the end of my headstay was bent. This prevented it from easily sliding through the foils. Be carefull not to loose any of the torque links as they are no longer available.

 

[cbourne200]

That's great....... With my luck I'll drop one link and destroy the whole thing.

'Looking for a bridge' sounds more appealing all the time. May have to sail a while before I get a Jib set.

Bu tthanks for the info

 

[tedsbeds]

A safe route is at a boatyard with a bosun chair attached to their crane.

 

[Sunbird22358]

The 1987 272 would have had a Cruising-Design Furler, but NOT the Flexible Furler. This was the furler they made prior to introducing the FF.
The Flexible Furler had a high-tech plastic extrusion, the earlier furlers had a multi-piece aluminum extrusion.

It could be that the 272 had a CDI furler that was setup (halyard) like the FF, but used the extrusion and drum from the earlier (more complicated?) furler that I describe above. The 272 originally used the Cruising Design REEFER (#1). I have attached a pic of the #1, Does this pic help at all? Hope it does!

Hope I didn't confuse the matter even more! I found this on the CDI web site: Reefer I or Reefer II?? -- The designations, Reefer I and Reefer II refer to the method of raising and lowering the sail, not the size or the model. The Reefer I uses an internal halyad that cleats off at the furling drum to raise the sail. The Reefer II uses a locking halyard system. The boat's jib halyards is used to raise a cam activator and the sail which locks at the top of the luff extrusion. Once the sail is up the halyard and cam activator ard removed and stored away from the system.

 

[Pat]

Hi Charles - I have a 272le with a CDI flexible furler. If you go to the CDI website, I believe there is a diagram of the setup. It's not the best system, but it came with the boat when I bought it and it works. Spray the track where the sail fits in with Sailkote and don't raise the jib if it's windy. It helps if 2 people raise the sail. One to feed the sail into the slot and the other pulling the halyard. You will love the boat especially with the furler on a windy day. The 272 is not the fastest boat and it doesn't point into the wind as well as other boats (because of the keel) but it is a very comfortable. I have owned many sailboats, but this is my favorite. Not too big (you can single hand most of the time) and not too small for coastal cruising. I'm not sure you have a CDI, but if you do - you have to add an extra piece of line to the halyard so the halyard line doesn't fly away from you and wind up at the top of the mast. Then you have a problem. You can email me at sgjaffess@gmail.com if you have any other questions. I'm down in Ocala for the winter where I have a Compac Suncat on a lake. Steve

Our 272 is exactly as described...but we tie a 3/16 inch dia. line to the
halyard as described below....it is necessary to hoist the sail on the furler
extrusion...this allows you to pull the sail up and or down...it then is untied, and the original halyard is tied off to one of the cleats near the bottom on the furler (there are two just above the drum)...then we put the extra line back in the dockbox until needed at the end or beginning of the season....all of this is because the original (Z-Spar) extra line (halyard) disentigrated inside the mast....or we would have been cleating it off on the side of the mast or leading it back to the cockpit....in lieu of a block on the furling drum...really is quite simple. Pat

 

[cbourne200]

OK guys - it's been at least 2 wks since I posted anything. I needed to go see Parents on MLK weekend (yeah, I know - government workers...), and this past week I have had a 'mini-flu'. Aching, headaches, fever, etc... But did finally get down to boat Sun about 4 PM. I tried several variations of what ewveryone has offered, but think the upper halyard must be jammed on something. For those times when I did get 'catching device' up mast and on right side, it wouldn't grab the short halyard. Either wouldn't grab it or simply pulled through. Guess the next step is to find a 30 bridge, 40' ladder, or remove the furler from the forestay. Or pay a rigger to do it...

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Charles