Roller Furling Mast problems

[Tom Boles]

The on negative I heard about laminate sails......in Florida, which is where I am....is that they mildew very quickly and very badly.

Can anyone comment on this?

[sailcrazy]

Our Taswell-43 has in-mast furling, and it was a problem for us since day 1....now some 22years ago. We tried resewing our main, buying a new mail, and eventually buying a sym main. All helped some, but we still had the occasional issue pulling the sail out-it would window-shade, then jam at about the 1/3 to 1/2 point. Sailing out of Athens, it jammed; we tried to roll it back in, but it was jammed! We pulled a little harder, heard a loud bang, and the main came down on us! We eventually got things under control, sailed back into port, and got a local rigger to come out. Turned out the 2 bearings in the upper swivel had locked up-one bearing had been bad for a long time- and the swivel unscrewed itself! We eventually got the mandrel out, got the upper swivel out and repaired, and got everything reinstalled. That was 8 years ago, and we have not had an issue since! Check your upper swivel bearings!