Installing a New Headsail Furler

So accustomed are today’s sailors to being able to furl their headsails that we oft en forget what it was like before this technology became so widespread—aboard cruising boats, in particular. A few years ago, though, the furler on my Tayana 42 bit the dust when a sealed bearing in the top swivel seized. Worse yet, parts were no longer available from the manufacturer and amidst the many other upgrades I was in the middle of, a new furler simply wasn’t in the budget.

Not that I let the lack of a furler stop me from sailing. As a stopgap, I had a number of soft Velcro hanks sewn onto the luffs of my various headsails, which could then be wrapped around my headsail foil. The resulting setup was functional, though I now needed a full crew to both dowse and flake the sails at the end of each day.

Finally, in late 2019, along with a complete re-rigging project, I replaced both the furler and headstay. The process was