HIFIELD LEVERS

[Boblee]

Simon
What are you doing in Melbourne it would be far easier to access sailing supplies in Sydney even Whitworths in Melbourne rarely have the catalogue stock let alone anything else..

[C Striker]

Hey I'm a moron, sorry. Is this lever used to help attach the furler, or is it the extension needed to get the genoa off the pulpit when opened fully? Putting another doo-hickie 8 inches higher up the mast and the extension at the bow is on my to do list.

At the moment I do the adjusting with a turnbuckle, as I have raised the genoa about 200mm to get it over the bow sprit.

Mistral, did you have an extension fabricated?

thanks,
Erik

[Mistral]

Hi Erik,

Some have put another hound 200mm (8 inches) higher at the top of the mast to accommodate the raising of the furler. I have a different arrangement and seems to work well. I did not do the work myself though, as I would have preferred another hound as well. (The work was done whilst we were overseas)
At the moment I am using a turnbuckle to fasten the furler at the bow, but am waiting for the Hifield lever to arrive, as this would make life a lot easier with connecting the furler.

I need to go under three bridges every time we want to go for a sail and it is not much fun connecting the furler on the water all the time.

I will take some pictures of my set up soon.

[David Mellon]

The pin at the bow is shipped metric, I drilled mine to a quarter inch because I had a bag in stock. That only took a few seconds with a cordless drill.

[rockman]

Well even at the Chandler in Hobart - opposite the Sydney Hobart finishers - they do not have metric pins either (i travel all over the country looking for a $3 pin).

So its wither drill out the shackle or make a pin with a metric bolt. The reason i do not want to drill the shackle out - is it will reduce the amount of material holding the pin. But this maybe the only solution. Why does an american boat ship with a metric pin? And why is it so hard to get a metric pin?

Cheers

[Oskar 26M]

Rockman
Try looking for a 6mm captive shackle instead? They look like a standard D shackle but have a thread sized so that the pin doesn't fall out when unscrewed. I've tied the D of mine to the tang with SS wire so I cant drop the shackle.

It is just one less fiddly bit to deal with when rigging the
Boating Hardware Prosail in O'Connor WA carry them ( and metric pins) but I dont know if they do mail order.

[C Striker]

Mistral,
Thanks for the info. It's really tough being a moron about sailboats. I look forward to the pictures. If I understand how a turnbuckle works, this would make attaching the furler a lot easier by myself... on land of course. Not that I'd even go out by myself yet. Your pictures are worth a thousand thank yous.

Again, all you Mac sailors are angels to me. Thank you all for taking the time to enlighten me.

Erik

[C Striker]

Why does an american boat ship with a metric pin?

The shackle was probably made in Indonesia by 10 year olds...

[Boblee]

This mod is almost a must do but have been holding off as I previously mounted another hound 18" above the original for the spinnaker to give clearance to the furler so now I am going to have to mount it higher and put another one lower for the increased headstay length, luckily I bought two hounds really cheap some time ago but will need to source the highfield lever.

With my aging eyes and fingers it is a real worry trying to hook up the headstay on the water especially if it is a bit rough, may even take the opportunity to extend the anchor roller as a mini bowsprit for the spinnaker which may give enough clearance from the furler without drilling another hole in the mast, having any extra out the front could be a problem though.

Rockman
I drilled the 6mm out to 1/4" there really isn't much difference and so easy to get different pins but I do have spare toggle pin wired there just in case I drop one.

[Mistral]

I received the Johnson Hifield lever today and installed on the furler and it works like a treat. Looking forward now to raise the mast on the bay and connect the furler. It will save time and frustrations.

[Oskar 26M]

Hi Mistral

Great to hear that it has made such a difference. It should may those 3 bridges much easier to handle

I'm embarrassed to say that although my hifield lever arrived just before Christmas, I still haven't gotten around to installing it . Otto the autopilot got priority

Can you tell us how you mounted the hifield lever? Did you move the hound up the mast (and if so how far?) or did you shorten the forestay, furler and jib to keep the original forestay length? or did the lever replace the turnbuckle mod you mentioned earlier.

How did you deal with the rotation issue? The the lever seems to be designed for a fore-aft tang like on the , whilst on my the tang and furler are both mounted to go parallel to the beam.

[Mistral]

Hi Oskar,

I will take some pictures today and attempt to post them. I will try to explain it here now.
I have mounted the lever directly between the furler drum and the bow with no shackles. This keeps the furler drum opening facing aft, so the sheet could be run on either side of the boat.
The hound has been moved about 200mm up on the mast with the furler connected. The shrouds are connected to the hound via shackles and St St wire. (I do not have a second hound in the original position). As explained before I did not do this mod myself and would not have been my preferred method

Dirk

[Boblee]

Dirk
Did you have to move the guide for the sheets back after you moved the furler drum up as it would alter the feed angle a fair bit so I suppose you would have to, yes think it would have been easier to just install a new hound further up the mast .
Crikey I haven't even ordered one yet Puggsy.
Bob

[Mistral]

Bob,

Yes, had to raise the sheet as well and used these from Whitworth on the two stanchions from the bow onwards to bring the sheet aft.
http://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemd ... lutePage=1

[Mistral]

Attached are pictures of the hound raised, old arrangement and the new hifield lever. Not sure how to put pictures direct on the page, so this will have to do.

Hound raised

Previous arrangement

New arrangement with hifield lever

Hifield lever open