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World Surf League Finals (WSL): Cloud Break

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The World Surf League (known as WSL) hosted the 2025 surfing finals at Cloud Break, Fiji.  Lucky for us we happened to be 6nm away from this prestigious and monumental event!

The athletes stayed at the exclusive and private island resort of Tavarua  which is conveniently located near the famous surf spot, Cloud Break. Rumor has it that clients of Tavarua Resort not only have to be very wealthy but they have to commit to surfing in order to stay here. 

We are not allowed to land on the island at all.  We tried to “walk the beach” and were promptly shooed away by security.

World Surf League  (WSL) Finals

There many famous surf spots in the world including Teahupoʻo  in French Polynesia, Pipeline in Hawaii, and Cloud Break in Fiji.  

Do you remember when I had the opportunity to watch the WSL competition in Teahupo’o, French Polynesia?

Fijians built is a permanent judge’s stand into the reef many years ago.  They add the banners to the stand each year and remove immediately after the event.

In the swarm of spectators there is a boat with the announcers.  The announcers let the surfers and their coaches know who has wave priority, what the scores are, and what is needed to move on to the next round.

The popular floating bar, Cloud 9 donates their transport boat for the competitors.  The locals wrapped the competitor boat in advertisement and outfitted it to comfortably house all 10 competitors and their teams.

The Spectators

Between 25-35 boats anchored near the reef to support and witness this great event.  In addition, there were dozens of dinghies, long boats, tourist boats, surf boats that came out to the “line” to witness the WSL competition and be part of the mayhem.

We took Sweetie, our dinghy out which was 6 nautical miles away from our anchorage.  That is a long way to take your dinghy!  We met up with our friends Chris and Sarah on Seaglub and Chris and Michelle on Beleza.

WSL Competitors

The WSL competitors have spent 7 months surfing all over the world in 11 competitions.  During the finals the top 5 men and the top 5 women compete to be world champion.

Michelle on Beleza shared some of her photos since I don’t have my phone (it died many months ago).

The waves started out slow but by mid-morning they filled in and provided a beautiful landscape for the athletes.

The wave curls around so we were only able to see about half of the surfable wave.  But still very impressive.

At times we had a 3meter swell pushing all of the boats and dinghies up and over. 

Cover photo by Ed Sloane, World Surf League

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual live events.  We enjoyed the WSL on 2 September 2025.

In our last blog post, we finally fix the last part of our standing rigging by replacing the furler and foils on our forestay. 

The Final Rigging Repair Part III

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Our rigging work is almost complete. The last part of our rigging work is the replacement of our furler and foils. 

Our furler is 24+ years old and has been limping along for awhile.  We’ve known we would need to replace it but we were hoping to do so in New Zealand (in 2 months).

We assumed we would have more resources available to us in NZ as opposed to Fiji.  But, we’ve been pleasantly surprised.

What does a Furler do?

A furler is a mechanical system on a sailboat that rolls a sail around a stay or into a hollow mast or boom. Furlers allow us to safely and easily deploy, release, and stow the genoa from the cockpit.  This eliminates the need to go onto the deck.

Sugar Shack has a forestay rod that has a multi purpose.  Part of the furler package is 18m of foils which will go on the solid rod we use as a forestay.  The leach of the genoa sail (front end) is threaded through the foils to attach it to the forestay.  The foils turn which allows the sail to be deployed or furled. 

The shaft on the furler has worn down over the years causing the bearing to not sit properly. 

So, the furler still had a little “give” or “wobble” even though we replaced the bearing.  

Ordering the Furler

Matt wanted the C430 x 18m Profurl Furler: included link plates 55mm + SS locks C430 and a threaded pin DIA 25mm (63/64).  

We placed the order with Wichard Pacific in Australia on Friday morning. Both parcels arrived and cleared customs on Tuesday afternoon. Pretty darn impressive!

Removing the Old Forestay, Foils, and Furler

Sammy from Westside Rigging first loosened both of side stays.  This action will release tension on the mast and forestay.

Next, Sammy removed the furler (at the bottom by the bow). 

His assistant held the bottom end of the forestay where the furler is located.

Matt then sent Sammy up to the top of the mast to remove the upper portion of the forestay.

The forestay is very long – about 18 meters long. 

We had 3 people in 2 different dinghies and 2 people on board.  

Sammy slowly lowered the top of the forestay as I guided it past the port bow and down  to the dinghy. 

We slowly get the entire forestay off the boat and stretched between the two dinghies to get it to shore.

It took all of us several hours to remove the old foils (which wrap around the forestay rod). 

Evidently, our NZ rigger used 5200 (heavy-duty glue) to lock in the set pins.  The 5200 prevented us from removing the set pins and forced us to cut 3 of the foils in order to get them off.

We donated 6 of our 9 foils and their connectors to another cruiser.

Installing the New Furler and Foils

We received (9) 2 meters foils (18 meters long), connection brackets and our new furler.

Our forestay (headstay) is 12.7mm stainless rod measuring at 17.5 meters long. It is HUGE. 

We laid the forestay out on the grass and tied off the ends to allow us to pull it straight as we worked.

First the foils go on.  This can be tricky as they have to align just right to get on the rod. And on top of that they fit very snugly over the pin that at the end of the rod.

Sammy installed the connectors which connect the foils to each other.

Loctite is placed on the set pins which are used to secure the foils to the connectors.

The top portion of the furler is inserted and then it is time to work on the furler drum. 

The drum is partially installed and will be completed back on the boat. 

Took a bit of fiddling and maneuvering, but  we installed the headstay and new furler!  Yeah!

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events. 

We replaced our furler toward the end of September 2025 in Vuda Marina, Fiji.

In our last blog, we share the experience of replacing our standing rigging side stays in Fiji.

Rigging Repairs & More Damage: Part II

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We noticed a problem with our standing rigging several weeks ago (see Part I Compromised Rigging).  Unfortunately, we were several days away from the closest marina so we had to “baby” our rig until we could replace it.

Vuda Marina

Westside Rigging works out of Vuda Point Marina. Prior to now, we had never had an opportunity to stay at Vuda – always a first for everything.

Our main goal is to replace the side stays and fix the furler so we get to work right away.

Removing the Side stays

Sammy and Theo from Westside Rigging arrived at 0900 and had both side stays off within 45 minutes.  

We decided to upgrade our side stays after learning that Sammy had stronger wire in stock.  So, instead of replacing the side stays with the same 16mm 1×19 wire we went with 34 meters, 16mm dyform 1×25 stainless wire which is 30% stronger! 

In addition, we decided to replace our old turnbuckles with new Regatta R/S stainless turnbuckles. 

I was cleaning the stainless a few hours before they came and encountered a problem.  I was cleaning the port lower gate, opened it, and it fell off in my hand!  For duck’s sake!  Seriously.  The lifeline sheared off right at the pin with no sign of corrosion, rust, or degradation. 

So, Westside Rigging took the port side lower gate to repair it as well.

New, Shiny Gear

Sammy was able to swage the pin at the top of each side stay and swage the stud at the bottom earlier that morning.  He returned to the boat the next day at 10am and had the side stays and the gate installed by 11am.  Super efficient

Not sure if you can tell the difference between the old and new side stays.  The new dyform has wire that is a little flatter where as the old wire is round. 

The image in the lower left corner shows the difference between the two wires as well.

The Furler ‘s Dead

Our ProFurl (NC43LCE) is original to the boat, 2001.  It has lasted a long time!  We thought we could replace the bearings and continue using it for a few more years.  

However, after the near bearings were installed the furler still had wiggle room.  It works, but the bearings will just wear out again with the extra wiggle room.

So, what does that mean?  We have to buy a new furler and while we are at it we will purchase new foils to go on the forestay rod.  Bleeding money here.

Westside rigging did not have this in stock so he connected us with Wichard Pacific in Australia.  We decided to order a Profurl C430 x 18mm furler along with link plates (55mm+ SS Locks C430) and Threaded pin DIA 25mm (63/64). 

The parcels arrived from Australia in less than 1 week.

Stay tuned for Part II: Replacing the Furler

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  We were in Vuda replacing the side stays at the end of August 2025.

Don’t miss out on our blog post “Vatulele: Curiously delightful“