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Post by sailbleu on Oct 18, 2010 3:51:16 GMT
My 40 Ds has a furling mainsail , an inmast in other words. Great stuff , although opinions are divided on that subject. Anyway , to retract the mainsail one uses a halyard , and thats where my problem is situated. The halyard is damaged and desperatly in need for replacement But i dont seem to be able to get this halyard out of the turning mechanism , not sure how its called. I've released some bolts hoping i could slide the black thing down thinking this the way to get to the knot of the halyard. There's also a screw in the with rope spiral (not visable on the pictures) which has been taken out. But this the black support does not move at all , bashing it down with a block of wood and a hammer has no effect and i'm a bit worried i might damage something. Could anyone tell me how to get this halyard off ? Besides taking the boat to a yard of course Thanks alot
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Post by dnickj on Oct 18, 2010 14:33:41 GMT
Hi this would be the furling line and not the halyard the only way of replacing this is to remove the whole furling gear from the mast 1 unfurl and drop mainsail 2 remove sail from both top swivel and furling gears 3 remove the securing bolts to both top and bottom of furling gear( looks like you have already done the bottom bolts) remove the 2 alan screws from each side cheek of the furling slot 4 with all this done you can now remove the unit from the mast to replace the rope its a good idea at this time to also clean and wash the ball races and just to let you know if you decide to break the unit down further you end up will stainless balls all over the floor also take a look at the Z Spar web site for further instruction on rope replacement
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Post by sailbleu on Oct 19, 2010 4:57:11 GMT
Thanks alot dnickj .
It is indeed the furling line and not the halyard. But as a non-American my knowledge of the Engish-technical terms is a bit limited , so sometimes i will probably use the wrong words. Sorry for that.
You know , before i read your post yesterday i gave the problem another shot in the afternoon (european time that was) , and yes , i kind of figured it out and it brought me to the same result as the procedure you described. The furling gear is already halfway out of the mast , but because i had no camera on me i decided to continue the job on tuesday (today ) and take some pictures while removing the furler. This might be a valuable contribution for others on the hint and tips section you see. Before posting my initial question here , i've searched every possible board on the internet hoping to find some answers to my problem. Maybe i didn't look in the right places , or just maybe no one had the same issue or was keen to publish it. I couldn't find any related post , which i find strange because sooner or later we all have to replace some lines and ropes. Therefor I will post my endeavour on this forum.
The Z Spar link you provided is outstanding , again many thanks for that.
To be continued.
Greatings
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Post by MalcolmP on Oct 19, 2010 18:08:59 GMT
Sailbleu
Yes this would be brilliant as a Hints and Tips article
please do send in or post the extra photos and I will put on line for the November update
cheers
Malcolm
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Post by sailbleu on Oct 20, 2010 5:36:39 GMT
Hi Malcolm,
yesterday i took my camera with me and started (tried) to take some pics. The damned gave up and probably the Li-ion bat is broke.I immediatly ordered another online and i suppose that will take at least a few days. The furling gear is already removed , i'll get the old line/rope out , measure it up and buy a new one. In can reconstruct the dismantling when i received the battery and take pictures. The article will - in spite of some road bumps- be delivered.
Regards
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Post by sailbleu on Oct 24, 2010 4:56:05 GMT
I suppose sooner or later most of us with an in-mast will have to replace the furling line , in my case it happened - due to a bad swivel block - rater sooner. Never the less , I for one am very happy with this system , giving me some protection in heavy weather. No dancing around the mast for me thank you. I know an in-mast is somewhat controversial , there are pros and cons. But the purpose of this posting is not to enter a discussion about the good and the bad aspects of the system , but merely showing others how to replace the furler line which retracts the mainsail. I will start by giving a website link Z Spar that was inially given by ' dnickj ' on the jeanneau board. www.zsparsuk.com/furlingmasts.htmHere we go The in-mast furling system. Severely damaged furler line , not replacing this is just asking for trouble. The line goes into the spiral or screw and is fix internally by means of a knot. Inaccessable without disassambling the furling system. Unless the mast is not mounted, in that case you can reach it from underneath. A picture of that knot. In order to remove the system first release the bottom bolts. Do not , as i did , release the small Allen-screw. That can be done afterwards , these allen-screws, along with the backplate, hold the system together. The same goes for the top section. Also take out the allen-screw on each side of the mast. Now before pulling out the furler , make sure the alu pipe that holds the mainsail (in my case the mainsail was removed before starting the job) is held in a way so it cannot fall down when you pull out the furling system. The whole part slides out quite easy. At homebase the backplate is taken away and also the small allen-screws in the front Now everything can fall apart. Beware. Before I separated the parts , I took care to collect the bearing balls that will scatter around once they are give a chance to do so. It didn't happen to me because I was warned by ' dnickj ' .Many thanks for that. Disassambly To give you an idea on the condition of the bearings Doesn't look very appealing right. First things first. Cleaning and degreasing the ball races Also the seats Greasing up everything will prevent the balls from falling out when trying to assemble the furler. Slide all parts together and attach the backplate so you have a temporary fix.And before we can screw in the small allen-screws all gaps will have to be closed. This is where a big Bertha clamp or brutal sergeant may come in handy. I guess there's no need to explane how the new furling line is put in (dont forget the knot) , nor is a disclosure neccesary on the furler reinstallment I would imagine Good luck
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Post by sailorjohn on Mar 7, 2011 18:19:51 GMT
Sailbleu, thanks for your very informative post. I have just replaced the furler line on my 54DS, and your advice was very helpful, along with the brochure from Marechal Mats (I can send it if anyone is interested). Btw, whoever designed this system should have their head examined... The steps and complications required just to replace a furler line are mind-boggling I have a question for all who have in-mast furlers: do you have a system to know how to find the right tightness of the halyard (how "high" you raise the main) since if it is too tight, the furler will be stiff?
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Post by sailbleu on Mar 8, 2011 4:53:56 GMT
Hi sailorjohn , i'm glad my contribution was of some use for you. About the tightness of the halyard , i would like to think that pulling the main firmly up would haven no impact on the friction of the furler .
Best regards
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Post by sailorjohn on Mar 8, 2011 5:22:14 GMT
Thanks Sailbleu. I would also agree with you, I may be confused by an assertion on the zspar UK site which recommends to check for " friction within the halyard organisers or at the mast base blocks or elsewhere within the deck layout". In any event, the mainsail on my newly acquired boat (a laminate construction from Mack sails) is fantastic, but was probably not designed to be used with a furling mast, as it is quite stiff to begin with. I suppose this is the main reason furling in and out seems much harder than it should, (i've been looking for ways to try to make it less so without success so far)
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Post by sailbleu on Mar 8, 2011 7:19:28 GMT
Please be informed that releasing the tension of the boom will make the furler more cooperative.
Regards
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Post by dublin on Mar 8, 2011 14:57:28 GMT
Too much luff tension or too much mast pre bend can make furling very stiff
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Post by sailbleu on Mar 9, 2011 5:11:30 GMT
I think that wraps it up. Will definitly also try the luff tension next time my furler behaves badly.
Regards
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Post by Spyglass on Mar 29, 2012 22:02:35 GMT
Just serviced my in mast furling on my 40DS. I opted to strip it down, was it out thoroughly with petrol, replaced the bearings and the furling line. I found the thread really useful but adapted a couple of things which I'll share here.
I elected to use KY Jelly to hold the bearings in place when re-assembling; this is water soluble so it can be washed out after refitting to prevent it attracting dust like the grease does.
When I re-assembled it I found that despite it being squeaky clean, and having brand new bearings, it still turned disappointingly more like a pepper grinder than the well oiled machine I was expecting. I found that the by ovating one of holes in the cover at the back of the unit so that the centres of the holes were slightly further apart, I was able to correct the pressure on the bearings, and adjust it so that everything was parallel. I used epoxy putty to rebuild the hole in its new position.
I found that the interfaces between many of the stainless fixings and the alloy/aluminium had corroded badly, to the point that i had to drill a few of them out. I'm not sure that Duralac (or similar) had been used previously, but I made sure I used it during re-assembly to prevent this in the future.
By the way, the bearings were 5mm stainless steel.
Really pleased with the result, it works like a dream.
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