Furlex 204S installation
Most people celebrate midsummer in Sweden by raising the maypole, we did it by raising the mast. We sold the old and worn Furlex Type B MK2 during the winter and was planning to install a new Furlex 204S during this season.
Unfortunately we didn't take good enough measurements of the old forestay length before selling it, so this project became an adventure too. For our excuse we did measure the old forestay, but the wire was inside the luff tubes in the storage along the mast and later we felt that was not exact enough. We were not hundred procent sure that the old Furlex was the right length either.
Also after taking measurements of the forestay angle, we decided that according to the Furlex 204S & 304S manual (1.4 Safety precautions), we need to install a halyard restrainer to guarantee a 10-15 degree angle to prevent the halyard warping around the furler. We could do that from the mast crane with a battery powered drill and a riveting tool.
New luff extension tubes and forestay
Taking measurements
Assembling the terminal
So we raised the mast with a temporary dyneema forestay which we could measure easily. We tried to set the mast straight with little tension with the temporary forestay. We took measurements twice with a 20m measuring tape and after hours of fiddling around, took the courage to cut the new Furlex extension tube and wire. Assembling the unit took double the time as we originally thought (as always with boat projects).
When it was finally finished, we used a spinnaker halyard as a second temporary forestay and raised the new Furlex to it's place with the dyneema line. The new Furlex came with a rigging screw terminal, which allows a little bit of flexibility on the forestay length, bit it was still a huge relief that it was a fit. There was a little problem however. The new unit's drum is larger than the Type B was, and it was in the way when opening the anchor locker lid. We solved this by adding an extension toggle to raise it from the deck by 4cm. This could be well compensated by tightening on the rigging screw and now the anchor locker opens nicely.
We've spent the rest of the weekend by tuning the rigging. The new Furlex works like a charm.
The new drum a bit too close to the anchor locker lid
Raised by adding a Seldén toggle
