Tautness of Roller Furler

[Jerry Gerber]

The roller furler seems too loose on my Hunter 26. In fact, there is a noticeable sag. I think the solution is to tighten the side stays. However, that pulls the top of the mast back and creates a lot of "rake". I keep reading that isn't good because it creates "weather helm" (?) so that it won't go upwind very good. Can someone help me with a solution? Or, is it okay for the furler to sag a little? Thanks.

 

[Wanderer138]

Try to tighten the headstay first

The headstay provides a single point of adjustment, whereas there are two sidestays to adjust, and both would haveto be adjusted exactly the same to keep the mast vertical from side to side. And as you rightly noted, raking the mast may create m

 

[Jeff]

Furling Turnbuckle

My CDI flexible furler became slack last season. It had become so difficult to deploy or furl up I bought gloves. It got kind of hairy a few times single handling and needing to reduce sail quickly. This spring we finally took the time to fix it right. CDI sells a replacement ball bearing set ($95) that retrofits the junk piece of solid plastic bearing that came with it. Retuned the rig, including the turnbuckle in the furler, and now it works like a dream. I accually have to hang on tightly to the furling line as the wind pulls my sail out with ease. CDI's phone number is 978-922-2322 in Beverly MA.Good Luck,"Festivity" H26

 

[Ron Mehringer]

Rig tensioning

You shouldn't try to overcome a slack forestay by adding mast rake. You need for the rig to be properly balanced. Greg at Hunter Marine says the 26 should have 1 degree of mast rake and the upper and lower shrouds should be tensioned to 20% and 10% of breaking load, respectively. Get a Loos tension guage to do this properly. If the shrouds are right and the rake is right, the forestay will be right by default.Now of course this means that you will have to adjust the turnbuckles on the forestay as well as the shrouds. The forestay turnbuckle is under the furlers drum. To lift the drum, you first need to remove the pin at the top of the drum.Hope that helps.s/v Hydro-Therapy

 

[Steve]

Is the forestay to long?

You may have the forestay to long due to stretch or it was not sized correctly. This is likely the case if your turnbuckle is as tight as it gets. Check the CDI recommendations for length and measure, it may surprise you! Addtionlly, make sure your attached to the bow u bolt not the jib tack (big differance!)Good Luck