Hood Seafurl Maintenance

[torlowski]

Is there any way to lubricate an old Hood Seafurl 810 HD, jib furler?

[BarryL]

Hello,

This spring, when my rig was down, I sprayed lots and lots of WD40 into the top swivel and the bottom furling part. Compared to last year, the furler takes a lot less effort to bring the sail in.

Barry

[knothead]

Originally Posted by torlowski

Is there any way to lubricate an old Hood Seafurl 810 HD, jib furler?

BarryL has the right idea. Spraying with WD 40 is probably just about as good as anything else.
It's important to rinse the drum after sailing to eliminate salt and then a spray with WD 40 or something equivalent is about all you can do.

You don't mention that you are having any difficulty but if you are here are some things to check...

Is the halyard swivel near the top of the foil?
Do you need to install a restrainer?
Is the first lead block at 90 degrees to the drum?
Do you have fairleads instead of blocks?

[sailingdog]

It really depends on the furler design. Some bearings, like the torlon or delrin ones used in some furling units are designed to be greaseless and spraying them with WD40 may actually interfere with their performance, as WD40 will still tend to collect some dirt. Others, which have steel bearings, are required to be greased regularly, and spraying WD40 will remove most, if not all, of the remaining grease.

[arf145]

The owner's manual for the Seafurl 810 suggests WD40--that was the only lubrication I could see mentioned in there when looking through it recently.

[wumhenry]

According to the service manager at the boatyard where I keep my boat, which is equipped with a 1980s-vintage Hood furler, the steel bearings should be replaced every four years.

[knothead]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

It really depends on the furler design. Some bearings, like the torlon or delrin ones used in some furling units are designed to be greaseless and spraying them with WD40 may actually interfere with their performance, as WD40 will still tend to collect some dirt. Others, which have steel bearings, are required to be greased regularly, and spraying WD40 will remove most, if not all, of the remaining grease.

You are right again SD. But I offered the advise I did because I am intimately familiar with this system.

Originally Posted by wumhenry

According to the service manager at the boatyard where I keep my boat, which is equipped with a 1980s-vintage Hood furler, the steel bearings should be replaced every four years.

With all due respect to the service manager, the bearings don't need to be replaced until they begin to give you problems.
Some of the 1980 Hoods used sealed bearings. Not stainless. These bearings should be repacked annually but usually aren't. If the bearings aren't full of grease, water will work it's way inside and if allowed to sit for a few weeks the bearing will freeze up.
Just last week I serviced one of these and the bearing was frozen solid. The owner had been using it that way for years. The entire frozen bearing was spinning.
Fortunately, he didn't do a lot of sailing.
I was able to remove the bearing and free it up.
It's working now as well as it did when it was new.
The bearings in a roller furling system are not like bearings in a high speed, high load piece of machinery. You can restore a frozen bearing and it will work fine.