Roller furling jib on Prindle 16

Very possible, just converted my P18 to furling jib quite cheaply, but I did have the Harken small boat furler already. Contact me for pic on the technical aspects.

Turbo

My p16 uses a Hobie furler and swivel with a custom upper forestay and bridals. I think you will run into issues if you are planning to share the forestay with a normal jib and furling genoa.

What sail do you use? Also I get the custom forestay, but why did you have to replace the bridals?

Ok first do you have a wire luff or zippered jib? You would not replace the jib with a bigger genoa type sail but just make the jib furling.

I just used a Hobie 18 furler on my P18. The only thing I had to modify was the upper forestay. I am using the same bridles and lower forestay I was using previously. I picked my furler up used for around $100 but I had to do a little refurbishing on it which was not to hard. You can get a rebuild kit for under $50 but depending on what you have you might can do it for less with just some of the parts.

I bought a harken micro cam cleat and flairlead and I mounted an tang behind it to run the line through. On mine if I did not do this the angle from the furler to the cleat was such that it would not cleat easily. With it, it cleats very easily.

I made my own Upper forestay at the swaging bench at my local West Marine but if I had to do it again I think I would just figure my dimension and have someone else make it. It is a real pain to set thimbles in 5/32 SS cable. I have the scars to prove it.

I used 1/4 in shackles to connect my standard Prindle Bridles to the Hobie furler which usually has forked bridles connecting to it on a Hobie. You could get bridles made with the fork on one end and a thimble on the other.

I removed the battens from my sail so it would furl. I have not replaced them with any battens that would work with the furler. I may look into this in the future but for now this is good enough for me.

For a Genoa type sail that you mention I think what you are looking for is a hooter.
http://www.catsailor.com/Hooter.html
http://store.catsailor.com/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=261&idproduct=8049

Mine is the zipper type. What I had in mind was using something akin to the Harken 344/345 system and replacing my jib with a sail that was 120% or slightly larger than the factory jib. The idea would be to be able to adjust for heavy winds between furling in on the jib and reefing the main. I have used similar systems on mono hulls, (my 23 Columbia for one), and it was a useful system. My 23 would run nicely before light winds set wing and wing with a 140% let out full. It also allowed me to use just the single jib. Not sure if it would be worth the time/expense on my P16 or not.

I'm not sure that system technically should be called reef-able but I am no expert. I had thought you had to have a specific type of reef-able furling system and they were normally found on the bigger furlers on monos. Also I am not sure you could get the right sail shape for a bigger Jib without moving the jib blocks even farther back on the boat than they are now. For a jib bigger is not necessarily better. It's job is not to add sail space to add power but to focus the wind on the back of the main to power up the main. If you want more you should have a squaretop main made.

makinmajik wrote: What sail do you use? Also I get the custom forestay, but why did you have to replace the bridals?

Replaced the bridals as Quarath said to fit the Hobie furler properly. I use the wire luff on my furler.

Edited by pknapp66 on Jul 07, 2011 - 06:00 PM.

Thanks to all for the advice. Turbohobo sent the particulars on his conversion and I think I can make that work if I can come by one of the Harken furlers for a reasonable price. You have a good point Quarath, I did have to move the blocks back a lot to take advantage of the extra sailcloth on my mono.
A general note, this is a great source of information and I really appreciate it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HARKEN-MODEL-435-SMALL-BOAT-FURLING-SYSTEM-/370525181724?pt=Boat_Parts_Accessories_Gear&hash=item564505971c

turbo

http://shop.sailnet.com/ronstan-furler-1234-p-5234.html . These guys also have the fork-fork swivel

anyone ever use a ronstan furler? load bearing limits?

Turbo

http://shop.sailnet.com/barton-marine-furling-drum-95mm-p-40550.html