[Rhodes22-list] mainsail problems

[Chris on LBI]

Graham, 

I see that your question directed to me about installing the sail was
answered above. I don't recall exactly what I did, but I don't recall there
being any uncertainty once I had the assembly apart. The only thing I would
add to the answer above is some additional guidance on the furling line.
This is to add to what Mike suggests earlier in this topic. And I second
Mike's caution about the pop-top car ... I also neglected to install it
before raising the mast. 

When I initially rolled the sail around the IMF furling tube during
installation of the new sail, it was not wound as tightly as when I furled
it with the wind blowing on the sail. So the number of times the sail
encircled the tube when I reinstalled the assembly was fewer than when I
first attempted to furl it on the water. Since the furling line wraps around
the spool at the bottom of the assembly once for each time the sail unwraps
from the tube, there were not enough wraps of the furling line around the
spool to furl the sail completely.

As an example, if I wrapped the sail 10 times around the furling tube prior
to installation, when I unfurled the sail, the furling line dutifully
wrapped around the spool 10 times. But when I went to furl the sail with the
wind blowing on the sail it was wrapped tightly enough to encircle the tube
13 times. However, since the furling line only wrapped 10 times around the
spool during unfurling, I still needed 3 more turns on the spool that I did
not have.

What I should have done was to wrap the furling line a few times around the
spool prior to installing the assembly to account for this difference. In my
case, the sail furls clockwise around the tube (when looking down from the
top of the mast). So the furling line wraps around the spool counter
clockwise as the sail unfurls. So, using the example above, I should have
wrapped the furling line 3 times counter clockwise (looking down from the
top of the mast) prior to installation so that when the sail was wrapped
tightly I'd have the three extra turns needed on the spool. 

I don't know the correct number of wraps around the tube that the sail
actually makes, but in my case, the difference was about 3 turns. That is, I
should have “pre-loaded” the spool with three counter clockwise turns. Since
I didn't, I had to fuss with threading the furling line through the slot in
the goose neck block and around the spool a few times; not impossible, but a
whole lot more difficult that three wraps on the spool prior to
installation.



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Long Beach Island
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