Furling 915LD to 900SL

[Paulus]

Does anyone know where I could get the 900SL?  Would like to replace the 915?
Paul

[Ken Juul]

Hood no longer makes the 900SL.  Ebay, used marine stores, someone upgrading, etc are your options.

I spoke with the Hood Service Manager a couple years ago at a boat show.  Replying to basically your question he replied....why would you want to put a new drum on a 20 year old system?  He said the cost of replacing the bearings to upgrade a used drum to new was going to be in the ~$600 range.  Why throw good money into an old system when with the returning owners discount program you can get a brand new Sea Furl 5 Model 235 for $800. 

I should have jumped right then, but I waited till last spring.  Price has gone up, ended up paying a bit over $1000 plus shipping.  It is so much easier to use....should have upgraded years ago.

As a reference, prices from Defender.com: List Price: $2,515.00 Our Price: $1,574.99

[Footloose]

I also upgraded to the SeaFurl 5 this spring.  Good instructions were provided.  The hardest part was removing the old foils from the headstay.  Putting up a new headstay would negate this problem.

[Paulus]

Did Hood make a 915 single line furling system?  There appears to be one on e-bay.
Paul

[Ken Juul]

no.  The one shown is the 900sl.  Perhaps it was originally a 915, Hood offered just the drum upgrade for several years in the early '90s, perhaps that is the confusion.  If you can get it for a coupe hundred go for it, at full price I would go with the new SF5.  I'm guessing that is what someone else did and now trying to unload their used junk.

[Paulus]

Ken, did you price other brands?  Did you install it yourself and did the mast have to be down?

[Footloose]

I will jump in.  I did price other brands and they were 2-3 times the cost although some of these may have included installation as they were through a rigger.

I did the install with the mast up.  I used the spinnaker halyard as a temporary forestay by tying it to the bow cleat.  I loosened the back stay.  I the removed the drum section of the 915.  After doing this, slide the foils up as far as they will go and measure the distance between the bottom of the foils and the fitting at the stem.  After you get the foils off place them end to end and measure them.  Add the distance from the bottom of the foils to the fitting and this is the length of your forestay.  There is a formula in the directions that directs you as to cutting one on the foils for propper fit.

When putting the new assembly on I used the Jib halyard to raise the foils attached to the jib car.  It took about six hours but I could do it faster the second time.  Hope I remember all this in twenty years when it is time to upgrade to the latest and greatest.

[Paulus]

Could you just take off the old one and lay it out and measure the new to the same size?

[Footloose]

The foils have to be taken apart in order to get them off.  There is an insert at each junction where the sections come together that keeps the forestay centered in the foil.  The hole is too small to go over the screw fitting on the forestay.  The foils have aluminium rivets that need to be drilled out to get them apart.  It is time consuming but not hard.

[Ken Juul]

Yes you can use the old one as a measuring stick.  I didn't think about doing the measurement before I took them off.  I did it on a windless day.  Basically the same steps as Footloose, but I didn't think it was necessary to rig a temp forestay.  The keel stepped telephone pole mast didn't budge.  Deck stepped, yes I would have.

The old one is held together by rivets, they are soft and drill out easily.  SF5 goes together with allen key machine screws.  Much easier.

I did price other systems.  They are all within a couple hundred dollars of each other retail.  the ~50% returning Hood owner discount made it a no brainer.

[Stu Jackson]

The old one is held together by rivets, they are soft and drill out easily.  SF5 goes together with allen key machine screws.  Much easier.

May be obvious to some, BUT...  Don't forget the Loctite on those Allen screws.  I know the guy who installed mine did, and he had to come back some time later to fix it.  Good thing the ones he didn't Loctite were within reaching distance of standing on the pulpit.  When he grumbled, "Whoever put this together didn't do it right."  He was that guy, but I figured it was better to let him "finish" his work than to push him off...   RTFM.

[Paulus]

Ken, you mentioned that you replaced your old system with SF5 model 235. Was not able to find this model on Hood's website.  Did you mean 325?
The upgrade on ebay sold for $790.  I am thinking to put on a new furling as you suggested.
Thanks,
Paul

[Ken Juul]

sorry, yes 325