My old Hood 2 furler's bearings are gone and it appears you can't buy spares anymore.

I'm pulling my fore stay off tomorrow (Solent rig) and plan to buy one of these next week to self install:

Seldon Furlex furler
Harken furler
Facnor tape furler

If my 4yr old stay is ok, I'm going to buy one of the Furlers above, if stay is buggered I'm going to buy a Seldon Furlex as that comes with a new stay.

Harken and Seldon are about $5.5k with the bits, Facnor about $1000 less. Im thinking of going the Facnor tape furler, cruising use. Anybody experienced with the furlers above got a good reason for one over the others?

How big is the yacht/ forestay?
I'm pretty sure furler questions / reviews/ recommendations have been done before on this site.

I chose one of the Alado ones. Prices online also:
www.alado.com/ prices page

33ft, Arends, 8mm forestay

So $3k Aust for the Alado, (A3 model???) plus perhaps a forestay. Or you choose a brand you're more familiar with.

The only issue I have with mine is, that after 10 years, the paint on the drum is starting to peel. I had one on my previous yacht for 10 years and no issues at all. I did break a forestay (from anchoring/mooring stresses) and needed to replace 2 sections of 5 foot each.

Hi Eastcoast.
What brand/model is your old furler?

There could be spares out there somewhere.
I am for keeping the old stuff going if you can.

gary

Gary,
It's an old Hood 2 era early 80's. I'm pulling it down today but known issue are bottom bearing are very rough and there are cracks in the lower extrusions. I think it's done 40yrs of service and its reached the end of it life. More of a proposition as spares for someone else.

I have started researching the Amalo

Today was a good outcome, it took several hours but I managed to get the Hood Seafurl 2 apart with no manual, I was pleasantly surprised to find ball races that could be taken apart with loose bearings. Cleaned out years of gunk. Now rotates easily, the forestay is serviceable and I stop drilled the minor cracks coming out from the feeder.

A rare occasion when it was an almost cost free day of maintenance (I dropped my 3/16 Allen key in the drink). Feeling grateful I can spend my boat dollars elsewhere.

I put a new Profurl C320 (I think it might have been a C310 back then) on Morning Bird before I started the Lord Howe trips. It performed very well indeed including in winds over 50kts. Quite a few thousand miles up and down the coast and to Lord Howe 3 times.

Yes, the Profurl look good, but I appear to have put off the new one for a few years. Out in up to 30kts today doing MOB training by sail and motor with a partially furled Genoa and the old furler worked well.

Select to expand quote

EastCoastSail said..
Yes, the Profurl look good, but I appear to have put off the new one for a few years. Out in up to 30kts today doing MOB training by sail and motor with a partially furled Genoa and the old furler worked well.

Always good when the cheap option you do yourself comes off.