[Rhodes22-list] More IMF Furling Advice

[David Culp]

 Hi Mary Lou:

The simple answer to your question is:  hand tight.

The complicated discussion for our newest owners and listees:

I always let the tension off the back stays when the boat is in the slip
remembering that we have a cabin stepped mast.  A former owner used the
analogy of a "bow and arrow" which I think is valid, so I don't leave the
"arrow" under tension when the boat is just sitting.  I believe the record
shows that if someone over tightens the stays, especially the back stays and
the aft uppers, that they are putting a lot of leverage and pressure on the
back of the cabin top; and because the internal bulkhead doesn't reach all
the way back under the mast step, they in essence, are breaking the cabin
top backwards over the bulkhead.  This is no longer an issue for me, because
I installed a center-post just aft of the bulkhead right under the mast
step.  I am now transferring some of the load to the bottom hull structure.
 I suspect that a former owner of my boat (there were several) got a little
carried away on stay tension; didn't follow Stan's advice about hand-tight
only and the result was that I had to do some small repairs and installed
the post to make sure that it was no longer an issue.

I end up always tightening the back stays before I go sail, because if the
forestay is just a little too slack, then the old GBI furler just doesn't
work as well.  You have a Schaefer furler if memory serves and so perhaps
you can adjust your jib luff tension with a separate halyard?  Conversely,
if I find I need more draft in the jib on slacker days, I just loosen the
backstay adjuster to reduce tension on the jib luff.  Just another nice
adjusting feature Stan designed in.

When I raise the mast, here is what I do to prevent problems:   I tighten
all the lowers hand-tight only making sure that I get the mast up as
straight as possible.   Then I loosen the forward uppers a little and put
tension on the back stay to make sure the slack is out of the forestay.
 This puts a slight rearward rake in the still straight mast which I find on
my boat helps balance the helm under sail. Then once satisfied with that, I
tighten the forwards again and then the outer shrouds (always hand tight
only) and then use the dastardly Loos gauge to make sure that the tension is
the same on both outer shrouds.  The Loos measurement on the outer, lower
shrouds is the only one I bother to check and it was a mere 120 lbs. as of
yesterday.  That is hand tight, virtually nothing and barely on the scale.

The last step of course is to actually sail the boat in a moderate wind on
both tacks and watch to see what happens.  If I find a leeward shroud is
swinging in the wind, then I will tighten it up just a bit, so that it has
zero tension and not quite swinging in the breeze when the windwards are at
full tension.  I must be getting better at it, because I test sailed the
boat yesterday in the above mentioned conditions and I was so pleased with
the setup that I have already put the cotter pins in the turn-buckles and
hopefully they won't have to be touched again until the next time I pull the
boat.

In summary, I have concluded that the upper shrouds only purpose in life is
to keep the mast from falling down.  Therefore, hand-tightening is always
sufficient.  The back stays are adjustable and their purpose is to just take
the slack out of the forestay when sailing and no more.   The outer shrouds
are on levers (spreaders) and they pickup a lot of the sail load when
sailing and help keep the top of the mast from bending off.  So when the
boat is at rest, they don't have to be more then hand-tight either.  My
observation with my setup is that when I am sailing in moderate wind and I
have the back stay tightened up to keep the jib luff tight-that you do get a
little rearward bend off of the mast.  So I was passing on to Charlie and
others that our masts actually bend off more then we think and it can impede
the proper operation of the IMF-which requires a straight mast to operate
properly.

Yesterday, because of the euphoria of having pretty much hit it on the money
the first time and also impending heat exhaustion (why do I always pick the
hottest day of the year to launch?), I forgot to loosen the back stays and
the IMF was not cooperating properly when I tried rolling it in.  Releasing
the back stays solved the problem.

Sincerely and you guys can have your hot weather back up there!

David



Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:01:03 -0400
From: Mary Lou Troy <mtroy at atlanticbb.net>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] More IMF Furling Advice
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Message-ID: <D3.50.09230.BAA404C4 at BL-206>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

David,
We tighten our backstay adjuster once a year when we launch the boat.
We've never loosened the backstay for furling the main. How tight are
your forward lower stays?

Mary Lou
1991 R22 Fretless
Rock Hall, MD


At 12:36 AM 7/16/2010, you wrote:
>This is for Charlie in Dallas... You can learn from my mistake today.
>
>You said you are having trouble furling the IMF.  The other advice everyone
>gave is  good and something else that you might try is to remember to take
>the tension off the back stays before you roll the IMF in.  I guess I knew
>that , but forgot to do it today the first time and it makes a world of
>difference.  First time - problems.  Take tension off back stays - no
>problems.  That mast bends more then we give it credit for.
>
>Regards,
>
>David