[Rhodes22-list] Lost My Headstay and Furler

[Graham Stewart]

For what it is worth, when I was reviewing various furlers for my boat I came across several makers who strongly recommended attaching the stay at both ends with toggles rather than have the swag attached directly to the masthead and chainplate. Apparently the sideways stress and movement with the furler is magnified as the stay does not flex along its full length to the same degree and that can lead to the stay breaking. Apparently this happened to Gary Novotny, a member of this  list, within months of installing his new furling gear. Shaefer requires that toggles be installed with their system. Makes sense to me and would be a reasonable precaution to take.


Graham Stewart
Agile. R22, 1976
Kingston Ontario Canada




-----Original Message-----
From: Rhodes22-list [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Curtis Ruck via Rhodes22-list
Sent: August 13, 2017 9:32 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Lost My Headstay and Furler

Not sure if the IMF Mast changes things, but with my CDI furler, its just wrapped around a standard 1/8" stainless forestay.  On my '79 it is just a professionally crimped fitting on the cable, and a 1/4" pin attaching the forestay to the masthead.

Hearing your story though makes me want to replace my 1/4" pin in the masthead as it was fairly bent... 10-15 degree angle, though given the width of the pin, the bend may be intentional to keep it from sliding side to side.

Curtis
Havre de Grace, MD
s/v Ruck It

On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 8:00 PM Peter Nyberg <peter at sunnybeeches.com> wrote:

> I went down to Groton today to do a boat project and go for a short 
> afternoon sail.  Winds were light and I was just puttering along in 
> Fisher’s Island Sound when there was a loud snap and the next thing I 
> knew my 175 genoa was floating in the water along side my boat.  The 
> bottom was still attached at the bow, but the top was no longer 
> attached to the top of the mast.
>
> This is a CDI furler, and an IMF mast.
>
> I managed to get the motor lowered and started, the main furled, and 
> then the genoa stashed along the port gunwale.  The very top of the 
> roller reefing assembly was still dragging in the water behind the 
> boat, but I was pretty sure that it would remain clear of the outboard prop.
>
> With all that done, I was able to motor calmly back to the marina and 
> pick up my mooring.  Before leaving the boat, I lashed the genoa more 
> securely, disconnected it at the bow, and shifted the whole package 
> forward a bit so that both ends were out of the water.  What I didn’t 
> think to do, for some reason, was to inspect the top of the furler 
> assembly or the top of the mast (using binoculars) to get a better 
> sense of what had failed and what might be required to put things right.
>
> I have disconnected the furler assembly from the mast several times in 
> the past, but now can’t really recall what the connection looked like.  
> In looking at some things I found online, it would seem that I should 
> expect to see some bits of rigging hardware (part of the actual 
> forestay) extending above the plastic top cap of the CDI assembly.  
> I’m pretty sure that at the moment there is nothing that extends 
> beyond the top cap, which if true would suggest that the forestay itself has failed.
>
> Of course the good news in all of this is that the mast has remained 
> more or less vertical through the entire process.
>
> I won’t be able to pull the boat out of the water, drop the mast, and 
> inspect things more closely until Monday.  In the mean time, I’m left 
> to wonder what hoops I’ll need to jump through to get my boat ready to 
> sail again.  Any insights or advice from the list would be greatly appreciated.
> And, as always, a picture is worth 1000 words.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Peter Nyberg
> Coventry, CT
> s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)
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