02-24-2008
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Mandeville, LA
Posts: 307
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Easy, though getting the new foil over the headstay is a workout. Read the directions - measure 5 times and cut once. Here's a bit copied from my website for the Tuff Luff Aero system. The link with photos is:
http://www.rambunctiousracing.com/sm...sjune2007.html
Tuff Luff Aero 1706 Headstay Foil Installation
The boat needed a new headstay foil. The existing one was a Head Foil 2 system and, while I
don't know how old it was, it was in bad shape. It was badly cracked, probably by a spinnaker
pole, and poorly repaired with a number of small screws. The starboard track would not feed.
I chose the Tuff Luff system as a replacement. Model 1706 is appropriate for my headstay and
luff tape size and I placed the order in early May with P-Yacht, who had the best price ($519). It
arrived at my office very poorly packed. Several inches of foil and the feeder were protruding
from a corner of the box. However, there was - incredibly - no signs of damage as a result of the
packing.
In order to get the new headstay on, I had to remove the old one. That started with the removal
of the old prefeeder, which was horribly designed. It is comprised of two halves that fit around the
headstay and over a plastic ball that's similar to the stopper balls used on spinnaker halyards.
The two halves of the prefeeder are held in place by pins. Those pins were the source of a lot of
grief when they would not come out of the prefeeder. They absolutely would not budge. The
plastic ball prevented the prefeeder from sliding off of the headstay turnbuckle, so I resorted to
drilling out the pins. Despite the generous use of cutting oil, I went through three DeWalt drill bits,
six titanium bits, and one carbide bit before giving up. I ended up drilling the plastic ball into
pieces small enough to slide out from inside the prefeeder and then detaching the headstay at
the stem fitting in order to slide the prefeeder out. What a junk system - an underbuilt extrusion
and a grossly overbuilt prefeeder.
Once the prefeeder debacle was sorted out, it was a simple matter to remove the older extrusion
and the PVC tube spacers.
I unrolled the Tuff Luff headstay and, while it thankfully did not have any
kinks, it had a great deal of memory from being rolled and stored in the box.
Even after the install, it does not run true up the headstay. I am hoping that
time and use will straighten it out.
The installation is very straightforward. The kit comes with a 4" tube spacer
for the top, more than enough extrusion, a prefeeder, the feeder, rigging
tape and more than enough tubing for the bottom spacer.
The first step was to attach the precut top spacer tube, which is 4" long. It simply snaps over the
stay and is secured with rigging tape along its length.
The bottom of the extrusion should be 42" above the stem fitting, as measured along the
headstay. I do not have a tape measure long enough to measure the headstay, so I removed the
feeder and attached the foil upside down and ran it up the stay. When it was all the way up, I
measured 42" inches from the stem fitting and marked the foil.
I removed the foil and cut it where it was marked with a hacksaw. I sanded the burrs from sawing
off and then reinstalled the foil right side up. I then took the spacer tubing and snapped it on
above the turnbuckle. I marked where it abutted the bottom of the extrusion and cut it with the
hacksaw. Then I wrapped the tubing with rigging tape.
The next stub was to attach the feeder to the bottom of the foil. Remarkably, I was able to do this
without losing any of the small screws overboard. The final step is to attach the prefeeder. It
should be installed 12" below the feeder and it's held in place with a seizing line. After it was
seized, I wrapped its base with rigging tape. |
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