I recently bought a roller furling kit from Hobie for my 1980 H16, it is a Harken setup, not the Hobie one. Does anyone have one of these setups? The instructions that came with it all showed pictures of the Hobie furling system. Should I take off the jib downhaul, jib block and jib halyard, the instructions did not say to. I figure I do not need them since the new furling jibs luff wire is the forestay, am I correct?
The way I started to set it up was with the new swivel pigtail attached to the 10 hole adjuster and the 10 hole adjuster connected to the large shackle,(shroud/forestay shackle)on the bottom of the mast tang. I disconnected the old jib halyard, block assembly and downhaul line, just by removing the upper pigtail from the shackle, but I did not remove it from the mast yet.
I also am curious as to why the jib has a line connected to the head which connects to the swivel instead of having a shackle, does this help with the furling?

Hello,
I had the furling system on my H16 also. You don't need any of your present forestay equipment. You should have a new pigtail that came with the kit (maybe 20" long) that connects to the mast tang. I used a 10 hole adjuster on the other end to connect to the swivel.
The sailmaker uses line to tie the upper part of the jib to the new forestay (sew in the jib) to allow for adjustment in it's tension.
I always trailered my boat so I would raise the mast with the jib attached on top. (loosen one shroud first) After you attach the jib to the furler, retension the shroud by having someone pull on a trapeze wire while you pin it.
If you have any other question, please let me know.
Jack Hoying
Fort Loramie, Ohio