New boat for me (3 months counting now) and very steep
learning curve as we all know! I look to the wisdom of the forum for your views on this:
The headsail furlers are old (30+ years) and I can't identify a brand on them. There is no swivel mechanism at top the forestay. The sail is hoisted, it
latches at the top of the
mast and then a trip up the
mast is required to release the
halyard. In more detail:
The
halyard attaches to a Sliding Piece that rides up the extrusion (but is keyed to and rotates with the extrusion). The
head of the sail is attached to the bottom of this Sliding Piece. At the top of the forestay there is a fixed Top Piece with a spring loaded latch. The sail is hoisted until the Sliding Piece
latches onto the Top Piece. It is then necessary to climb up the mast and release the halyard to furl the sail. To drop the sail I need to go up the mast, attach a halyard and release the Latch (I've tried to attach a photo).
Has anyone seen a system operate in this way? Did old furlers
work like this or might I be missing
parts? Is this a reasonable way to handle the sail? A new
furler would be nice but I am trying to understand the situation before making such a sizeable investment!
Thank you all for any ideas or comments, and sorry for the longish post!