Schaefer Furler Upper Swivel Repair

Little bits of white plastic rained down on the foredeck and got stuck in my hair as I removed the jib from the furler. Broken bits of anything raining down from a part as important as a roller furler doesn’t make me feel very good, but at least I was removing the sail for the winter!

It took a while to figure out where the plastic bits were coming from, but eventually I figured it emanated from somewhere inside my furler’s top swivel. Earlier in the season I had noticed the jib was more difficult to furl than in previous years, so I figured something in the furler system needed attention.

My 1996 Catalina 400 still has the original Schaefer System 3000 headsail furler that came with the boat 25 years ago. It has worked great, needing almost zero maintenance… until noticing these white plastic bits. Fortunately, Schaefer is still very much in business, and I was able to talk with some of their reps at the Annapolis Sailboat Show only a few days later.

I learned that if there was a ball bearing problem, the plastic bits would probably be grey or beige, and looking at the new furlers on display at the boat show confirmed this. I also learned the top swivel has a white plastic liner between the bearing races and the foil to reduce friction when raising or dropping the sail… this white plastic liner was the primary suspect of what was wrong with mine.

Failure of this white plastic liner made sense since it was above the sail, even when furled, and therefore got lots of sunlight throughout its entire life. 25 years of direct sunlight is pretty good for a plastic part, though!

Talking to the people at Schaefer also revealed: they still had the part in stock, I would need to disconnect the forestay in order to replace it, and it “wasn’t that hard to fix.” Good! They have a YouTube video explaining headstay turnbuckle adjustment, a similar project, which proved helpful as well.

Using a mirror to look at my swivel, still in place on the foil with mast up, revealed that the plastic “Upper Swivel Bearing Tube Inner Liner” was in fact decayed at top and bottom. I also noticed the swivel had a bunch of play when twisting perpendicular to the foil… enough that I suspect it caused the extra friction when furling the sail during the season.

Since the liner goes all the way around the foil inside the swivel, the forestay needed to be disconnected. It IS possible to remove the swivel with the forestay disconnected at the bottom end, so complete removal of the headstay isn’t needed, nor is unstepping the mast. The process is actually pretty easy, and I was able to accomplish the whole project in a few hours in the spring.

First I needed to reduce tension on the forestay as much as possible so it would be easy to disconnect and reassemble. My boatyard requires the backstays to be removed during haulout and launch, and launch day was approaching, so I disconnected the backstays completely. Since “Priorities” has a keel stepped mast I wasn’t worried about the mast falling over, but I did run halyards fore and aft to assist in reattaching everything.

I removed all the cages and trays surrounding the drum. I secretly thanked myself for using Forespar Lanocote during reassembly a few years ago… there was no corrosion between the stainless steel screws and aluminum furler components like last time!

Next I needed to get the swivel below the sail feeder by removing the sail feeder and sliding the swivel down to the lower foil extrusion, just above the torque tube. After sliding the swivel down, I reinstalled the feeder to help with the next step.

At this point I proceeded as if I needed to adjust the forestay tension, which I’ve done before. I tied a spare halyard to the foil just below the sail feeder and tensioned it. This keeps the foil from sliding down the forestay after parts below the foil are removed.

With the foil held up, I loosened the clamps and pin holding the torque tube in place. I also removed the screws connecting the torque tube to the drum. To get the drum out of the way, I removed the stop pin from under the drum, and it slid down the lower toggle. As I did this, two bits of another plastic liner fell out from where the drum stop pin was connected. I hoped this new problem wasn’t critical, and planned to research it the next day.

To disconnect the forestay I removed the pin at the top of the toggle and hung on tight! I had hoped the turnbuckle and another toggle extension would slide all the way out through the torque tube. It appeared shaped to do so, but I couldn’t get it to fit. Instead, I completely unscrewed the turnbuckle to get the “break” in the forestay needed to slide off the torque tube.

Finally, I was able to slide the swivel down and off the forestay and turnbuckle so I could work on it. It was immediately obvious the swivel bearings were in good shape while the liner was significantly decayed… I’m glad I decided to replace it now!

The liner is held in place in the upper swivel with a retainer ring similar to the clips that hold winch bearings in place (especially the inner bearings on my primary winches). I carefully used a flat head screwdriver to remove the clip, and swapping out the old liner with new was easy.

Reassembly is basically the reverse of disassembly.

The next morning, I called Schaefer again for their advice regarding the plastic part inside the drum. Again, they were super helpful. Apparently this lower liner merely keeps the headstay toggle centered in the drum and wasn’t that structurally important, and should not have a significant effect on operation. The inner race of the drum doesn’t rotate relative to the toggle, so friction wasn’t an issue. The part also isn’t in production anymore, so I couldn’t replace it, but they recommended I reinstall the decayed part as best I could. I ended up merely changing the orientation of the damaged liner in a way that should be fine. If I really had to I probably could have used some plastic pipe or hose to make it work. I also probably wouldn’t really need to disconnect the forestay again to replace it.

After several “test sails,” I’ve haven’t noticed any additional problems with my furling gear, and furling the sail seems easier than last year. Of course, I plan on doing as many “test sails” as possible this season!