Association Forum - Bent Furler Links

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Bent Furler Links

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Doug G.
1st Mate

Member Avatar

USA
49 Posts

Initially Posted - 11/09/2003 : 22:06:43

Today was my first time to lower the mast. I have owned this boat for 3 months,'83SRSK. It has always been in freshwater and rarely trailered by the 2 PO's. No one could tell me when, if ever that the mast was lowered/raised. I was able to lower the mast with an A frame made of 1 1/4"elec. conduit, similar to the version in Tech Tip's on Bear's Abode. I did this solo, in the water, in my slip and was quite happy to feel in control the entire time. It went fairly well. When the mast was down, I noticed my CDI furler foil was bent 10 to 20 degrees at several of the joints in the foil. My specific questions are: Can these torque links be safely bent back? Or should they be replaced? There doesn't seem to be any damage to the luff extrusions. Does CDI still exist? If not, is there another source for parts? How can I avoid doing this in the future? Thanks ,Doug G. 83SRSK 'Pelican' Grand Lake, OK.

Doug G.,83SRSK C25, #3767,Pelican.
Grand Lake,OK

Edited by - on

tmhansen
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
397 Posts

Response Posted - 11/10/2003 : 00:39:05

Doug your furler sounds like the one that came with out boat. We replaced it with a new CDI furler because the current version uses an extruded plastic foil that is pretty tough and can take the minor bending of stepping the mast.

Edited by - on

RichardG
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
990 Posts

Response Posted - 11/10/2003 : 00:39:14

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Does CDI still exist?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

You bet! -- http://www.sailcdi.com/

Edited by - on

Earl Landers
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
157 Posts

Response Posted - 11/10/2003 : 10:24:22

Doug,
When I went looking for parts for my 1983 version, CDI "Reefer II" I found that the parts that I needed were no longer available. Tork links (for my furler)were not available

at that time. As a result, I replaced my CDI with a new Snapfurl. The old furler would barely turn, (PO didn't buy the "bearing option") the foil is a rigid extrusion and is easily bent, as you found, and my crew was very unhappy with it's performance. The new Snapfurl spins easily with included bearings and the extrusion is a bendable plastic making it much easier to deal with if your boat spends much time on your trailer.
I have most of the parts from my old furler, if you can't find the links elsewhere, let me know and we can make some measurements to see if my parts will work for you.

Edited by - on

deastburn
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
334 Posts

Response Posted - 11/10/2003 : 15:35:50

I have the CDI furler, new version of the drum (it is a closed drum, whereas the older version has an open drum), but I have not replaced the foil. I have grown to like the stiffness of the old aluminum foil.

I have several spare links I can ship out to you if you cannot obtain them from CDI. If the foil itself is bent (unlikely--it is designed so the links will bend first), then I doubt you can do anything about it. The links can be bent back--to a point. If you need a couple of links, I think I can help you out.

Email me at: david_eastburn@milton.edu

I think it takes two links for each joint...

Edited by - on

CatalinaGuy
1st Mate

Members Avatar

USA
55 Posts

Response Posted - 11/10/2003 : 17:17:22

Same thing happened to me as Earl, I couldn't get replacement links for my old CDI, so I'm currently in the process of replacing it with a new Harken Furler. Catalina Direct has really good prices on the Harken unit right now - <$800.

Edited by - on

Doug G.
1st Mate

Members Avatar

USA
49 Posts

Response Posted - 11/10/2003 : 20:56:57

Thanks for all the help.
David, as I approach 50 I have also grown fond of stiffness.

I called the CDI office today. The enthusiastic man on the phone said that my links would probably tolerate rebending once or twice. He thought that my 10 -20 degrees of bend was correctable. He also said the original links were 4-5 inches long, longer than necessary. He suggested cutting a link down to 2 inches would work well.

His other sage bit of advice was to loosen the first link ( each section of aluminium is 6'4'')above the furler completely after disconnecting the forestay. Then the remainder of the foil can be loosely tied to the mast to protect it from bending. I will try these tricks next weekend. I do appreciate the offers of links and will let you know soon if I need them.

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.