I was doing some equipment inspection before our next big race, and noticed this hairline crack in the yoke of the jib furler. This is the part of the furler that the bridle wires connect to and which transfers all the forestay loads through the furler and to the bridles. As you can see in the pic, the crack goes almost half way down the yoke. No doubt a failure of this part would result in a dismasting.
The crack was very hard to find because it was hidden behind the wind vane bracket and also because there was some surface rust in the corners of the yoke. In order to inspect, you may need to first clean off any surface rust with stainless steel wool and/or a stainless steel wire brush. While you're at it, you may want to do a complete servicing of the furler.
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I'm sailing tomorrow if mine's not cracked. Would be good to know if any one else has this failure on our old boats.