Hood Seafurl

isandell

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1 Mar 2003
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I have a Hood Seafurl jib furling system and the halyard swivel needs new bearings. I have sourced the stainless balls but am having trouble assembling the unit.

Has anyone reconditioned one of these units, or know where I can get it done in UK?

Thanks

Ian
 
Thanks for offer, but it's probably the same exploded view that I have in the handbook. It looks like it should be easy to assemble - not unlike a bicycle hub. My problem is that when put together, the assembly is too long and the retaining clip wont fit.

Ian
 
I have a hood Seafurl 705 LD, continuous line, system. The continuous 'loop' lines are lead to the cockpit via pulley blocks attached to the stanchions. How should the continuous line be cleated/jammed in the cockpit?

When I bought the boat all of the pulleys were broken etc so I replaced them but there isn't any satisfactory jammer at the cockpit end. Currently I use one of the aft mooring cleats, but it means cleating under (sometime considerable) load a tricky business......
 
If this is the same company, why not contact Hood? They were taken over by Formula Yacht Spars.

Formula Yacht Spars
Wick Road
Burnham-on-Crouch
Essex
CMO 8LT

Tel; + 44 (0)1621 782821
Fax: +44 (0)1621 785162

Website; www.formulaspars.com
 
I am not sure that's the same company as a couple of years ago Hood Furling gear was handled in the UK by Pompanette, who still do Hood furling gear in US but do not operate, as far as I can find out, in the UK.

However, thanks for the info and I will contact them.

Ian
 
I used to cleat both lines around a cleat on the cockpit coaming. It was not difficult to cleat off but because there was so much rope around the cleat if the wind was strong the line slackened off a bit and the drum would slip, causing the genny to unroll just when you didn't want it.

I converted the drum to single line. I believe that a few years ago there was so bad press with the LD series that Hood offered US users a free upgrade to single line. The LD was then sold as jib furling only and not reefing. To be honest, I think the LD is poor piece of kit, in many ways.

Ian
 
I,too, have a Hood LD furling system. Spares can be obtained from Chris Wragg, 25, Broad Lane, Lymington, Hants s041 3QN. I suspect the bearing w'ont fit because you are not using the correct teflon ball bearings. Ring Chris on 01374 249755 or 07774241755 or it might be 07774 249755 ( I can't read my own writing!) and discuss the problem with him. I disagree with Ben_e_Toe and Isandel. I have had one on my yacht for 14 years and it has proved excellent. The furling side of the loop is lead through a spinlock cleat just in front of the main sheet winch. The return passes a cleat. To furl the loop is passed around the winch and pulled to reef the jib and then the return loop is pulled quite hard against the furling line via the drum and then cleated so there is no slack in the furling loop forward of the spinlock and cleat. As the instructions state, I always make sure that there is no sheet load on the furling line when reefing. To let off, uncleat the return line and then lift the spinlock lever, whilst pulling the return rope. I have had to replace the furling line 3 times in the 14 years and always make it clear to the riggers that I want line with minimal stretch.
The gear has given very little trouble and I have sailed many thousands of miles (2304 last year) with it. I suggest you persevere before spending thousands on a new gear and sail alterations. The only downsize I have noticed is that it is so easy to lose one of the studs that holds the shackles and they are very expensive. Good luck with it.
 
I have this afternoon had an email from Chris Wragg. He has taken a bit of tracking down, but hopefully he will be able to help.

Kurrawong_Kid mentions Teflon balls, but my unit has stainless steel balls interspered with nylon, so I dont think that's the problem.

It's good that you have had good service from your Seafurl. My problem was never reefing the jib. That worked well enough. It was more that I could not stop the jib unrolling when the wind got up. Clearly you have that fixed and I didnt, but having spent a season trying to get it right I gave up. This problem is not unique, see http://www.c34.org/faq-pages/faq-hood.html or http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/8005/furler.htm or a number of other pages.

Ian
 
I have a Hood Seafurl - do you have a copy of the exploded drawing of assembly that you could send electronically. I would be very much obliged. Happy Seafaring Keithwinedown AUSTRALIA
 
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