Anyone heard or know about "Surefurl" Jib furler

[zenith_adelaide]

This may be a hard one.

Has anyone heard or came across a jib furler made by "surefurl". Mine says Surefurl Cruiser. It's installed on a 1994 50ft ketch and since I recently had to purchase a new genoa after it was wrecked in a storm whilst moored, can't really buy an furler just yet. This particular furler seems to have a plastic bearing, well at least it looks like it. Does anyone know if these should be greased or lubricated? and if so with what?

I've attached a photo that shows the bearing. The fixed fuler is slotted into the blue plastic bearing and clamped to the forstay. The furler than rotates on this.

Thanks will be interested to know if anyone heard of the brand or if they have seen this type of bearing on any others.

Z

[RaymondR]

Not sure what the name was but there was a furler manufactured in Queensland somewhere which was low cost. It did not use an upper swivel the sail being hoisted by a halyard which had a sheave in the top of the furler section. The halyard was tied off just above the drum at the rack shackle.

I would not bother greasing the nylon bush, it won't help much and will drip on the deck when it gets runny in hot weather. Short spray of one of the dry glide spray can products if you feel you need to do something.

[zenith_adelaide]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Not sure what the name was but there was a furler manufactured in Queensland somewhere which was low cost. It did not use an upper swivel the sail being hoisted by a halyard which had a sheave in the top of the furler section. The halyard was tied off just above the drum at the rack shackle.

I would not bother greasing the nylon bush, it won't help much and will drip on the deck when it gets runny in hot weather. Short spray of one of the dry glide spray can products if you feel you need to do something.

Aha. Yes that sounds like the one. No upper swivel. So does the sheave rotate?

The reason I thought I may need some grease or something is that the metal sleeve that slides into that nylon bearing is a bit corroded and not super smooth. I may coat it with good epoxy and sand it as smooth as possible. Maybe that might work. It was also very dirty and full of bird poop after shags used the furler as a perch for a few year at its previous home.

As with th e spray lubricant, do you mean like a silicon spray?

The furler does look simple. Just hope it can work for a year or so until I can replace it. I have other projects going which I was hoping to concentrate on first.

[RaymondR]

Nope, the top bit does not rotate on the foil. The sail wraps around the foil and halyard both when you furl it.

A lot of epoxy won't adhere to alloy but there is a black two pack drain putty generally in the plumbing section of Bunnings which will and sets very hard, It,s excellent for fixing leaks in alloy boats and I use it when I want to glue wood to alloy. It used to be called "Renko" but I think they may have changed the name. I think one cans black and the other red.

Any one of those dry lube sprays would be OK or a light spray of Lanotec. Nylons pretty slippery and does not need much in the way of lube when it slides slowly and does not heat up.

[zenith_adelaide]

Thanks for that Raymond. I'll try and work out the top halyard setup to see how it will work. I'll put a new halyard in as well.

Thanks for the other tips. I have this stuff called mega epoxy. It seems to set super hard. It's a two pack one is grey and the other white. I'll read up to see if it's suitable for alloy.

[dockgoody]

I think the one that zenith is talking about is the Alado, great furler, have had one for 3 yrs and absolutely no issues.

[zenith_adelaide]

Hi dockgoody. Are they still in production? What size boat do you have it on?

Originally Posted by dockgoody

I think the one that zenith is talking about is the Alado, great furler, have had one for 3 yrs and absolutely no issues.

[zenith_adelaide]

Just took a look at the alado system. I think it's the same concept to what I have. Does not look the same but has similar features so parts are not compatible from what I can see. I did notice my foil has 4 tracks. I assuming its to allow hoisting if two sails at a time as an option..

Originally Posted by dockgoody

I think the one that zenith is talking about is the Alado, great furler, have had one for 3 yrs and absolutely no issues.