Hood furler

[Ed Shankle]

I'm one of the members who took advantage of the special offer end of last year to buy the lower unit of the SL to replace the old CD lower unit. I've done the installation and am looking for advice and guidance on the initial furling line wrap and headsail hoist and furl.
The manual that accompanied the unit didn't provide any instruction on that topic and I figure there is some technique that would be good to know.

thanks,
Ed

[Gene Regan]

You should have your new furling line at hand. The line must be double the boat length, (mine is 75 feet long). and decored one third of the length. Inset the decored end through the hole in the unit and knot it on the other side. A single figure 8 knot works well and brought tight. Then turn the drum by hand and wrap the decored end around drum until you have all but 10-15 feet of decored line wrap ed. Hoist the sail and furl the sail keeping tension on the sheets. you should have at least 3 wraps of jib sheet around the furled sail when done. If not then bring the sheets forward and stand on the pulpit and manually wrap them around the furled sail. Go sailing-If need be then fine tune upon returning to the dock or at anchor.someplace calm.
Keep Smiling

[Ron Hill]

Ed : I bought 70 ft of 3/8" polyester(dacron) line.  Works great.
When you load (hand roll) the line into the drum make sure that you do it in the opposite direction, so the sail furls with the sail's UV protector on the outside of the sail.
Also make sure that the last furling line block is ABSOLUTELY feeds perpendicular to the drum, or the line won't smoothly fill the drum.