Furlers require a rigging toggle at the masthead. If your boat doesn’t have a rigging toggle, the forestay must be shorter to accommodate the length of the rigging toggle.

While sailing, the furler pulls the forestay to one side. Tack and it’s pulled to the other side. A rigging toggle installed at the top of the forestay provides a “U” joint that allows the forestay to hinge side to side. Without it the forestay is bending from side to side. The forestay will work-harden and fail where it is bending. Some Catalinas come with a rigging toggle. If so, we don’t include another in our kit.

Perhaps not. If the forestay is new enough (max 7 years old in salt water, 10 in fresh), and the furler design simply assembles over the existing forestay, you might not need a new forestay.

Furlers are made by hardware companies, not boat builders. A furler is suitable for use on many different models made by dozens of boat builders. Any one Catalina model was built with several different rigs. The C-28 had six different rigs and was offered in both standard and tall versions for example. With so many variables, only the owner, after measuring, knows for certain what length to trim the foil to.

A furler requires a tiny bolt rope (also referred to as a luff tape), that slides up the groove built into the furler foil. The sail must be built or retrofitted with the correct size of luff tape to match the furler’s requirements.

Yes, there are three differences between a furling and hank on sail. Furling sails have a bolt-rope, a sewn-on cover, perhaps a foam luff to shape it when reefed, and they are cut somewhat different than hank-on sails.

If a hank on sail is near the end of its life, it may be a candidate for converting just the luff. Know that, uncovered, the sail will rot in the sun… but it’s near the end anyway, right? Get a couple more seasons out of it and then buy a new sail.

If the sail is fairly new, the inclination is to convert it. But add the cost of conversion, the cost of the cover, plus the used value of a good sail… Is it better to sell it and put that money toward a new sail that is purpose built to be a furling sail? You decide.

The most common reasons for forestay failure are:

a) Lack of a halyard restrainer, or halyard restrainer mounted too low or too high for current sail (see your furler’s instructions) Note: CDI Flexible Furlers don't use a halyard restrainer.

b) Inadequate forestay tension allowing forestay to sag (tune the rig)

c) Lack of a rigging toggle between the top of the forestay and the masthead

d) Age… Don’t cheap out! Replace your forestay in a timely manner. If it fails and you lose your mast, Catalina’s original cost-effective rigs are no longer available. Current replacements are so expensive your insurance company is likely to total your beloved boat if you lose it.

Contact the your furler’s manufacturer or visit their web site for the installation manual for your model and vintage.

In order to provide a furler for a reasonable price, Flexible Furlers eliminate the expensive halyard double swivel that slides up the forestay as the sail is hoisted. Instead the design incorporates a built-in halyard that rotates with the furler. This eliminates the need for the expensive halyard swivel.

Yes. Since you are not using the boat's halyard that is led back to the cockpit, it is inconvenient to adjust the headsail's luff tension. You must go to the bow, untie the sail's downhaul, adjust the tension, then re-tie the downhaul. 

Schaefer, Selden and Harken furlers all preserve the ability to use your boat's halyard to adjust luff tension from the cockpit since they all employ a double halyard swivel to hoist the furling heads'l.

Remember, your boat sails the same way an airplane flies. The sail's airfoil shape creates lift that pulls your boat to weather. As wind speed increases, you sail's cloth stretches. As it stretches, the draft moves aft, ruining the sail's nice airfoil shape that creates the lift.

Poor shape creates greater heel and more weather helm, making it uncomfortable for the crew, harder for the helmsman to steer, and adds lots of stress to you, the boat, and rig... not to mention it's really slow. Add luff tension, pull the draft back where it belongs, and everyone aboard has a better time. The additional speed is just a side benefit.