Snapped forestay , furlex furler, halyard wrap

[ato]

just my 2 cents if you need to go up the mast without a safety line.
if i need to do this (for whatever reason) i always use the safety harness and a safety line, too. the line goes from the harness twice around the mast and back to the harness. if you fall, you'll slip a bit but the line will tighten around the mast and slow down your fall until you come to a spreader.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by mr-canada

Well the saga continues. I talked with some very old salty salty dogs and they recommended that I go with the rigger. Said it will be cheaper in the long run, and I agree with them.

I chatted with the manufacturer of my Seafurl 705 LD furler and got the original manual. Turns out that they recommend 1 & 3/4 " between the top of the furler foil and the swage at the top of the headstay. My boat has about 5-6" which explains in part the halyard wrap problems and the very finicky way I have to adjust the halyard tension to keep the halyard from wrapping.

I can see why the person who installed the furler did it - you buy foil segments in 3-5 foot lengths and to buy one to only hack off the first 3-4 inches seems rediculous. I've advised the riggers I'm seeking a quote from of this issue and hope that they can find a chunk of Seafurl compatible foil from scrap or something.

A halyard restrainer ironically was not recommended by the furler manufacturer. They simply recommended another chunk of foil and having the installation done as per the factory recommendations. I think that the halyard restrainer may actually negate the need for it, but they say otherwise.

Also worthy of note is that the stay did not break in and of itself, it snapped out of the swage. Interesting for some experiencing this problem on a tight budget - a crafty rigger might be able to reswage the stay into a new pin and not replace the sucker at all, although I dont know if it would have the same strength. I was under the impression that the successive halyard wrap problems had caused some meathooks up there making the problem progressively worse until it snapped - but it actually just popped out of the swage. Might save me a hundred bucks on the stay because the rest of it is in great condition.

I had so many different people at the yacht club with so many different opinions. Given that my Seafurl is a line drive (continuous) its not so easy to just disconnect the stay at the bottom and slowly bring it down. There is a whack of deck hardware that the continuous line runs through that would have to be removed - the other option being to hack through it but it needs to be continuous thickness braided at the joint which is pretty hard to do. I love my continuous furler I dont understand why they ever did it any other way so I dont want that line hacked apart. Beyond my rope skills.

My advice to anyone else suffering the same fate: if you dont know how to do it already get the rigger. I heard some pretty awful tales from some very experienced sailors about doing the rigging themselves. One hilarious one about a home made dinghy that got demasted in a light breeze and furious paddling to try to get back to shore until the boat capsized. The remaining guy on board tossed a life jacket, and the overboard guy threw it back at him because he was standing in four and a half feet of water as the beach was shallow. They pulled the boat back and got the rigging done by a rigger and the boat lasted for 45 years with no further rigging ever needed.

I had a lot of people with a lot of different ideas on how to go about it but it made me wary. In squamish there are regular 30 knot winds on a sunny day and I dont want to take any chances. If this thing came unwound at sea I would be wishing I had bolt cutters aboard to drop the whole rig in the water which makes me cringe at the expense.

When my forestay was compromised I took advantage of it and took the bottom unit to the rigger with the old continuous line, which was pretty worn. He spliced a new continuous line the exact length of the old one.

I'm going to replace the lower unit. I can't live with the fact that I can't partially furl that headsail in an emergency.

[bobconnie]

Im trying to get used to my first furler on our new to us boat !! Never had one before! So far we have been sailing with our fore staysail, main and mizzen, we hope to get a chance to try useing it to sail with soon ! We have been trying to furl and un furl it at the dock, and it seems to work well. Just that it's new to us! LOL (as old as I am, Ive never had one before !! Had junk sails on the our colvin, and hank on on the others) It seems to be about a 120 genny, so it won't be to big to handle! I guess I will just have to use and see LOL It's hell to try out this fancy new stuff !! LOL

[mr-canada]

furlers are truly awesome devices. I have never hanked so I dont know what that's like but I just hate the idea of running around the foredeck trying to drop a sail - in squamish on a sunny day seeing 20-30 kts of wind right at the harbour mouth is pretty common and a 3-5 ft chop is a normal thing to deal with just to get back to the slip, the outboard is cavitating and the wind is blowing the boat either faster on an inflow or you are fighting it on an outflow. it always terrifies me when I have green crew aboard and they are wanting to run around on the foredeck with a camera on a tablet or phone while I'm fighting an ebbing tide and an inflow wind at 30kts at the harbour mouth... theres no room to rescue the buggers in a channel that needs a serious dredge

the furler makes it easier, as I near the harbour mouth I release the jib sheet and get a crew to hold it to keep a bit of tension, even while under sail I just depower the sail mostly and then start hitting the continuous furler while holding the helm between my legs. nobody running amok on the foredeck with all the pitching and yawing in that madness before I hit the channel and everything smooths out

under sail its also awesome, the wind dies and you give up on sailing, just release the main halyard with the lazyjacks up and the sucker drops right into place, firm up the mainsheet and have someone tie it up while I roll up the jib after starting the motor while helming at the same time

although I highly recommend the continuous furler. I cant imagine trying to get a halyard wrap undone by holding the jib sheets in one hand and the furling line in another, sounds insane to me, so many back and forth movements and it would take two people if not more to do it without going ballistic

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

Im trying to get used to my first furler on our new to us boat !! Never had one before! So far we have been sailing with our fore staysail, main and mizzen, we hope to get a chance to try useing it to sail with soon ! We have been trying to furl and un furl it at the dock, and it seems to work well. Just that it's new to us! LOL (as old as I am, Ive never had one before !! Had junk sails on the our colvin, and hank on on the others) It seems to be about a 120 genny, so it won't be to big to handle! I guess I will just have to use and see LOL It's hell to try out this fancy new stuff !! LOL

I miss my hank on sails from my smaller boat. It just wasn't that big a deal to change out a sail. It's a big Magillah on this boat, but hank ons just aren't practical on this boat.

Roller furlers are I suppose a necessity at a certain size but they're also another darn thing to break -- or to break other things, like forestays.