Considering a New Roller Furler

[SY Marelot]

Originally Posted by neilpride

..s, i have a couple of profurls in my boat, so far are 9 years old and still working smooth and nice, corrosion at the drum is unlikely , Titanium ...uck.

For this I will just add that last week I spent two days to unsrew the "unlikely corroded" titanium screws of both my Profurl drums. They are 16 years old and the screws were COMPLETELY stuck in aluminum corrosion. The titanium is not corroded but due to galvanic effect the surrounding aluminum is, and then it is rather difficult to dismantle the units. If anyone has experience with re-threading the fasteners Id appreciate advice!

[colemj]

We had an Alado on our 40' boat for 12yrs until we sold the boat. Worked perfectly, no chance for halyard wrap, no changes to the headstay, no bearings or screws to corrode or maintain, dead solid foil sections and installation with no tools needed, easy to remove if needed without dropping the headstay - and half the price of others. Basically, it is fool-proof and bullet-proof.

Mark

[neilpride]

Originally Posted by SY Marelot

For this I will just add that last week I spent two days to unsrew the "unlikely corroded" titanium screws of both my Profurl drums. They are 16 years old and the screws were COMPLETELY stuck in aluminum corrosion. The titanium is not corroded but due to galvanic effect the surrounding aluminum is, and then it is rather difficult to dismantle the units. If anyone has experience with re-threading the fasteners Id appreciate advice!

16 years old is enough to have seized and corroded things if the drum is never serviced , same for the top swivel , foil sections etc... as far i know the only Titanium part is the drum body and the 2 screws holding the bottom flat bars togle, i guess you are refer to the screws in the alu folding section , bad news for you because if everything is seized and corroded is very dificult to get the drum intact and the bottom alu section to. We normally leave the parts soaked in PB bLASTER overnight , if this not work we use some heat and lots of patience and if this dont work, we order a new drum or parts if the owner agree. Cheers.

[noreault]

I had an alado on a previous boat. I liked it a lot. It was very well built, easy to install, and functioned well. It has an integrated halyard, so no chance of halyard wrap. More of a cruising system than a racing one.

[SY Marelot]

Originally Posted by neilpride

16 years old is enough to have seized and corroded things if the drum is never serviced , same for the top swivel , foil sections etc... as far i know the only Titanium part is the drum body and the 2 screws holding the bottom flat bars togle, i guess you are refer to the screws in the alu folding section , bad news for you because if everything is seized and corroded is very dificult to get the drum intact and the bottom alu section to. We normally leave the parts soaked in PB bLASTER overnight , if this not work we use some heat and lots of patience and if this dont work, we order a new drum or parts if the owner agree. Cheers.

Yes, you are right that the screws should periodically be lubcricated and cleaned. However this is especially important as the drum body is NOT titanium in these furlers, it is an aluminum alloy. At least it is so in my 16 yrs old ProFurl furlers. The exposed location guarantees salt water contact and then the combination of titanium/steel screw and aluminum body gives the setting for corrosion. Ok, thanks for the advice on soaking in a reducing compound.

What I will probably do however, is to drill out a slightly increased diameter in the drum body, re- threading the aluminum and fastening with new bolts. These new bolts will not be titanium original from profurl, because they no longer fit, and importantly, because these original spares have prohibitive pricing. And, inox machine bolts wth hexagonal heads will be easier for maintenance. However, the hexagonal heads protrude more than the flush mount of the original countersinked titanium screws.

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Don't know if all the Facnor models use the same design parameters, but the Facnor on my Solent jib has stainless balls running in stainless races. Lousy design IMO because one can't get them apart to replace lube or lip seals, so mine is running on borrowed time (about 7 years old). Already had to replace the upper swivel, too. They are easy to assemble and install, though.

Cheers,

Jim

Jim

I have just managed to strip down and overhaul the Facnor Furler on the solent jib. It was an SD 165 and came apart relatively easily.
Removed the screw securing the foil to the furler, then disconnected the link plates, lifted the furler and foil using the halyard, backed off the turnbuckle, disconnected the turnbuckle from the deck fitting, removed the turnbuckle fork, which then allows the furler drum to slide off the stay.

Removed 4 screws holding the top plate in place, which gives access to the upper grease seal. Prise out seal, then removed internal circlip holding the upper part of the top bearing in place.
Facnor state that the bearings are sealed, not really true, there is an upper and lower race, with loose SS balls between them. The races came out quite easily with using some thin hooked steel rods. Once the lower race is out, there is an external circlip to remove (this one holds the lower race in place).
You then need decent long reach external circlip pliers to reach down between the inner and outer parts of the furler to remove the circlip holding the lower bearing in place. Once that is removed the outer part of the furler can be pulled off (with a little effort) the inner part.
Then the lower seal and bearing can be removed.
For the SD 165, the seals are metric 44 60 7 (cost about $7), and the bearing balls are metric 5mm. ($20 for a bag of 100)

Have attached a drawing supplied by Facnor

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Jim

I have just managed to strip down and overhaul the Facnor Furler on the solent jib. It was an SD 165 and came apart relatively easily.

...

Have attached a drawing supplied by Facnor

G'Day Nigel, and thanks for that post. Unfortunately my edition of the Facnor utilizes different construction. I don't remember what the model number is, and I'm 8K miles from her so can't check. At any rate, neither I nor my rigger were able to disassemble the lower drum assembly far enough to replace either bearings, grease or seals. Various press fits with chamfered edges so that there was no way to press them apart. He had some conversations with the Australian importer and they were not able to suggest anything beyond replacement.

The unit is about 8 years old, and is sized for sails up to ~ 300 sq ft; my staysail is about 200. The upper swivel failed at about 5 years and the replacement unit was redesigned and much beefier than the original. That sorta indicated to me that they decided that the original was not adequately strong... but were happy to charge me full price for the replacement! I now wonder if the lower bearing assembly is not also inadequate in specs?

Oh well, they get to run their biz however they want to, but when it eventually fails I'll be looking at other mfgs.

Thanks again for the info -- I appreciate your effort.

Cheers,

Jim