Trick to remove roller furler with forestay up

[bclery]

I needed to refurbish my Hood roller furler and replace the forestay.  At first I could not figure out how to get this mess off, but eventually I managed to remove my entire Hood 900 furler single-handed with the forestay still up.  I did this in a very controlled manner while winds ran 20 knots gusting to 30 knots.  So I thought I would share this trick.

You need a jib halyard and also a spinnaker halyard attached to a block on that "spinnaker crane" at the mast top.  You need 80 feet of extra line, 3-strand type works best, use your anchor line for this.  You need 60 feet of basic 5/16 line to be cut up ($24).  And a few tools, vise grips are handy.

Cut the 60 foot 5/16 line into 4 foot pieces, melt the ends. I will call these "loop lines".

Remove the jib.  Fix the jib halyard to the bow cleat, tighten.  This is what will hold the mast up.  I also pulled my main halyard forward to backup this jib halyard.

Tie the end of the spinnaker halyard to the boat-end of the anchor line.  Begin to raise the anchor line up.  At a point 4 feet below the start of the anchor line tie a "loop line" to the anchor line, sticking the loop line through the twist of the anchor line so it cannot slip in position.  Then wrap the loop line around the roller furler and back to the anchor line, then tie again to the anchor line.  This loop should be small enough that the anchor line stays close to the furler, but plenty lose to allow movement up and down.  You will be creating a "cradle" that will hold the furler in place.

Raise the spinnaker halyard another 4 feet.  Now tie another loop line in the same way.  Continue doing this until the anchor line is ALMOST to the mast top.  At this point you will have about 14 loop lines on the anchor line which will support the forestay and furler.  Tie off the spinnaker halyard.

Do NOT pull the spinnaker halyard so high that the top loop line has any risk of going over the top of the furler extrusions at the top.

Now take the anchor line at the bottom and route it around something forward like the bowsprit if you have one.  Then run it back to the bow cleat and tension it by pulling down on it and taking up on the cleat end.

Loosen up the backstay turnbuckle, about an inch is good.   Put heavy tension on the Jib halyard.  Put good tension on the bottom of the anchor line (the cradle).

At this point the forestay and furler are slack and are nicely cradled by the loop lines.  You can easily disconnect the forestay from the bow and remove the furler sections, one at a time.  The forestay and furler sections will stay safely in place while you do this.  Have your drill handy to drill-out the rivets.

In an few weeks I will put the thing back up and try to use almost the same process.

Hope this helps,
Bill

[Phil Spicer]

Creative !!!  Good luck with your projects....Weather has put mine on hold...Winds 20 to 30 temp,hi in mid 20's & getting colder, Lake Erie snow belts expecting 10" to 20". So I'm installing a new fireplace !

[horsemel]

I never heard of anyone installing a fireplace on a C34.  Let me know how that works for you. :)
Mark Mueller

[Joe Kern]

Ditto what Mark said.  Certainly takes "Your boat, your choice" to a whole new level 

[Phil Spicer]

 Added Ballast