Harken Furler

[Ted Pounds]

Brent and I are putting a Harken furler on his (my old) boat.  Any tips or gotchas from folks who have done this?  Do we have to shorten the headstay?  Which toggle do we use?  Looking at the directions it looks like it's doable by the two of us with the mast up.  Not much different than what I had to do to replace a foil section on the old Hood furler 10 years ago.  Any comments or advice would be much appreciated.  Thanks.

[Jon Schneider]

Now would be the time to change the forestay (I used Dyform, which allowed me to go down a size on the Harken Mk II and realize a net savings).  Also check for wear around the pin hole in the top toggle.  Actually, I would just order a new one from Garhauer (it's about $15), but you also need to get the get new clevis pins, which Garhauer doesn't automatically supply (also probably available at WM or any chandlery).