jib furling question - where's the spring

Greetings!
A am a novice to the hobie world. I bought a used Hobie 18 last year & sailed a few times.
I dismanteled (dropped the mast), for winter storage and now that I have it somewhat re-assembled, a few issues.
1 - the most obvious, the jib furling mechanism is mounted backwards so that the hole for the line (to furl & unfurl) is facing the front of the boat. - OK - I'll tie off the mast to a tree to keep it unright, while I undo the furler and spin it around.

2 - even though it's backwards right now, I cannot get ANY tension in the furling mechanism. Where does the tension come from - ie the tension to roll up the jib? _ saw a video of someone rebuilding the furling mechanism and there was no spring. I am confused.

Would appreciate any insight.

Thanks..
-no clew-

1) Yes, the opening should be facing aft, and slightly offset to the port side of the boat.

2) There is no spring. The line is pulled to furl the jib. To un-furl the jib, you uncleat the furler line and pull the jib sheet. To furl the jib, you uncleat the jib sheet and pull the furler line.

When rigging the boat, hoist the jib, & set your halyard, etc. Then hold the clew (aft corner of the jib) in one hand. With the other hand, pull the furler line as far as it will go. The jib will begin to furl, but but sometimes not completely. Hold the furler line and wrap the jib around the headstay until it is fully furled. Then connect your jib blocks.

sm

You worried me when you said you were going to "tie your mast off to a tree" so you could disconnect your forestay to flip the furler hole to the back. If you have a helper and your boat has trapeze wires, a much better plan is to orient your boat with the bows downhill, so the natural tension is on the shrouds ( that's the two rear sidestays for the mast ) then unhook the base of one of the trapeze wires and pull it forward, and let your helper "become the forestay" while you unhook both front bridle wires ( that's the short ones between the hull tang and the furler) and then hook the left one on the right and the right one on the left.....that will put the furler line hole on the back where it's supposed to be.
After some further thought even if you have a helper, I'm thinking it would probably be safer to tie an extension line on to the bottom of the trapeze wire and tie it down to the tongue of the trailer....well, that's assuming you are on a trailer...if you are on the ground you will need a helper strong and heavy enough to hold the trap wire forward as I outlined earlier....really not very hard to hold the mast forward if the boat is already tilted downhill...
I often re-pin my forestay to adjust my mast rake, depending on conditons, by hooking one leg through a hiking harness attached to a trap wire pulled forward...but if you are going to switch the bridle wires left to right etc..you really need another set of hands.

Thanks for the responses.
D'huh - there IS no spring!
The aha moment was when I attached the Jib lines to the clew & saw that it unfurled the jib & the furling line was to roll it in.
It's amazing what one forgets over the winter.

The hobie is at our cottage & we have a concrete boat ramp & use rollers to bring it out of the water - no trailer.

Thanks for the idea of using the trapeze wires to hold the mast forward - easier & better (mounted higher) than the rope I tied to the mast at the diamond spreaders, then to a tree.

Question: Rudders. I had removed the rudders from the control mechanism last year. Is there a difference between the rudders such that I need to mark the port/starboard rudder to assemble properly?

Regards,
no_clew

Yesireee ,,,Mr No clue...there is a right and left to your rudders..the arm on each will have a slight bend INWARD when they are on the proper side.
I talked to a guy last year who was selling his boat because it was "too hard to sail".....He had his rudders on backwards and the hold-down cams were both flipped into the locked position. He had no idea how to lock and unlock his rudders either..
He had been sailing that way for the two years he owned the boat. His hulls were mush, and his sail was toast...but I think he finally got someone else to buy it.....At least the rudders are on there correctly now, I hope he showed the new owner how they lock and unlock.

Nosireee ,,,Mr No clue...there is no right and left to your rudders ...

The rudders and the lower castings are identical. Now the upper rudder castings on the other hand are definitely right/left. The tiller (the arm that sticks forward that does the steeering) has a bend inward when they are on the proper side. This provides Ackerman effect because the hull in the inside turns a sharper corner than the hull on the outside of a turn, because of the width of the boat.

yep, he's right...the lower castings and the rudders are interchangeable.....but since I have never seen anyone trailering a boat take the upper arms off the lower castings to do so.......I so foolishly assumed that I was giving you the easy simple answer you were looking for...
Now if you needed information on the ackerman angle effect well then..now you have that too.
I on the other hand did enjoy his comments on the ackerman effect...I fool around with alignment on SCCA cars...we call the same thing "toe out on turn" ...cars and boats with caster, camber and toe settings, but the boats all steer from the rear.
Oh...there I go again assuming all boats steer from the rear...someone will surely chime in to tell me about a boat that steers from the front

Mark the tillers with a wrap of colored electrical tape - red for port, green for starboard.