New Inmast Furling Problem

[chuckr]

we have a jeanneau ds40 with the inmast furling and once we got it going it was simply outstanding -- never had a problem furling or unfurling
in tunisia we had a bit of sail work done on the 3 fingers that are at the end of the sail and attach to the outhaul pully on the sail for added support -- one of them came loose so the canvas guy said he would resew it without taking down the main as he could it by hand -
great - so we flew home to the usa and got back and found all 3 new ones - he had pulled the main and taken it to his shop for new ones on a machine - then reinstalled the main - we have been having problems ever since getting the main out - first it was wrinkling going in and we would go on deck, grab the bottom of the sail and pull it out - we eventually took the sail down and reinstalled it - worked a couple of times but now sticks coming out about 20% out - so up on deck a bit of pulling the sail in then by hand grab the bottom and it comes past the bad spot and all ok

no problems getting it in

we have tried putting it in very very tight -- very loose and no solution yet --

any thoughts??

our one is maybe he changed the sail just a tiny bit and threw the whole system off - but no idea

[alenka]

Hi Chuck,

No probs with our inmast last year (43DS) but had new washers inserted in the goose neck. First time out and in no problems but the techy helping me thought the sail needed to tighter and applied tension to the halyard. Guess what, in stuck next time out. I furled it away taking up the slack the best I could in the mast, dropped the tension and out it came no probs. With very little wind I was able to adjust the halyard, topping lift and kicker to get an even tension and nicely setting sail that, touch wood, is working ok.

i am not an expert but it seems to me that too much tension on the main halyard does seem to cause problems.

We had a bad start the the season with our headsail which stuck two thirds up then lost 3m of bolt rope!  On close inspection it transpires that two sections of the furler have been assembled up side down (from new) creating a grove section that goes wide to narrow rather than narrow to wide.

Checking maintenance bills of the previous owner also highlights past sail repairs created by the same problem.

I was lucky that Barry and Sue at Suix Sails in Nidri pulled all the stops out to get me sorted and sailing with the minimum delay.  Nice people to do business with!

Good luck.

[sailbleu]

Chuckr , sorry for the short answer , but your mainsail has to be replaced.
The sailmaker did not make any mistakes , I had the same problems with the fingers you mentioned , after repairing them the main did not come out that smooth anymore.
You can still sail it , be it with some frustration.
Please check the board (history) you will find several topics on the matter.
I started a topic with titel ,.... " what is wrong with my inmast furling " ...or something like that.
Again , please check the search mode.
Good luck

Regards

[chuckr]

a bit of an update -- we have managed to work with the main - there is one small sticking point and it is early on in the unfurling process - so no big deal right now -

but now the kicker -- we headed to the messina and 5 wx fcst had light winds -- well light turned out to be 30-35k gusting 38 and seas well lets just say we went straight up and straight down for a while at speeds from 4 to 1.5k -- i don't want to say it was ugly but wooo it was not pretty -- we reefed her down to just a bit of main to help maintain control but the sail got beat up a bit when she got a bit sideways - and after we got into scilla we found a few stitches had popped so we taped them and will try to get it resewed in croatia -

we have to get out of schengren and hopefully in a few days will be in albania for a while and then to croatia and hope to find a jeanneau dealer who can give us a recommendation on a sailmaker - we trust jeanneau dealers - and explain the problem to them and see what they say

will keep you informed

oh and this time i will be present on the repair and not an absentee owner as last time when they said they would do a hand sew in place and then pulled it and replaced not just the one that came loose but all of them -

[alenka]

Chuck, if you turn to the south from Albania and end up in Nidri, Greece I can recommend Barry & Sue at Suix sales for repairs.
They fixed my headsail 4 weeks ago and I am pestering them for a bill!!!

[sailbleu]

Chuck , i still believe a new main is imminent

Regards

[chuckr]

for an update for some who many not look at all the pages -- look at the equipment and commissioning section --

[zofiasailing]

Not sure if you have resolved this yet but we had a similar issue and it was unconnected to a sail in poor repair. 

We took our sails to our sailmaker to be checked as well as measured ahead of our round Australia trip, figuring that we wanted reassurance and any small maintenance done preemptively plus the sail dimensions recorded in case we needed/ or when we need new sails.

When we put the mainsail back up we incorrectly attached the loop that holds the foot of the sail onto the furling mechanism in the mast. We put a twist in it. The correct method is simply to slide the loop onto the flat metal hook - no twist! It is held in place once the halyard is tensioned. 

The incorrect installation did not appear to have any adverse effect on sailing performance but certainly necessitated a trip 'out front' to assist with the furling which was jamming. 

With any luck, this could be the problem and not the need of a new sail.

Cheers
Eva and Brian

[chuckr]

As an update we were coming across the boot of Italy in 15+ k winds and having a great sail when i heard a loud bang on the boom -- looked up and the sail had come apart on the lower seam.  we took it in and by the time we did the leach line was still in tact but the sail itself was torn off
after a lot of effort and looking (i will give a total update on buying a new sail later) we got a new sail from Kemp Sails in the UK and had it shipped to Dubrovnik Croatia where with the help of EuroMarine - the Jeanneau dealer here - we installed it today

the guys at EuroMarine think it can be repaired but only as a back up sail and i will try to get that done

[dublin]

We replaced our sails (the original set) this year after suffering a huge lack of performance last year which culminated in the roller main jamming in 30kts rounding the Mull of a Kintyre. It was also wind against spring tide and thick sea fog but that's another story.

Got a set from jeckells. Radial cut and made from Hydranet. The claim for the material so that it holds shape like a laminate but has a useful life similar to Dacron.

Now finished our first season with them. They are superb . Performance is so good I thought my log was over reading so I checked in against the marked mile on Arran and it was reading correctly.

Close hauled (40degrees apparent) in a slight sea and 18kts gusting to 24kts apparent with full sail set the log held constant in the high 7s. Moving between 7.7 and 8.1. At that stage putting a reef in both main and genoa the speed dropped to 7.5 7.8 range but with less effort and a flatter boat.

In gusts (from consant 15 gusting up to 22) she now accelerates rather than healing

On 63nm passage ( lam lash on Arran to Bangor in Belfast Lough) with 18 to 24 kt winds just forward of the beam and with no tide assistance we covered the distance in 10 minutes under 9 hours. As it was wind over tide in the north channel it was what my wife refers to as a tumble drier. It was actually pretty rough and was the first and only time in 7 years of ownership that I've had a wave break into the cockpit.

In summary the hydranet material appears to be a top class performer. Fingers crossed that the claim for longevity is also correct.

[saltymetals]

Chuck, the unfurling problem is v sensitive to the halyard tension. If you stop and think about it , the mast is slightly bent so the more halyard tension you apply to more you force the furled sail against the slot at about half way up the mast. Slacken the halyard too much and the loop at the tack will drop off the hook so the hook falls from the vertical to the horizontal and will rub against the inside of the mast , jamming the furling. I found the answer is to put a couple of cable ties around the hook to stop it dropping off. You can then play with the halyard tension to get things right.

The other thing which might help resolve yr jamming is to move the stopper on the boom traveller back a bit. i now have mine about half way along the mast. this gives a much better horizontal pull on the sail when you are unfurling. It also increases the distance of the 2:1 purchase on the clew which also helps.

If you need a sail loft somewhere around Split then i suggest you try Righi. Well recommended by some of the charter guys in Kastel Gomilica. They fixed my Genoa v well after it got a bit shredded in a Bora.

Andrew
"Genial Bee"  

[ianpowolny]

Chuck, I guess you've spoken to Kemp? They may be able to help. It is their sail isn't it?

Ian

[chuckr]

Nov 26, 2018 16:03:32 GMT ianpowolny said:

Chuck, I guess you've spoken to Kemp? They may be able to help. It is their sail isn't it?

Ian

Hi Ian -- no we replaced the torn one with a Kemp Sail - had it a bit recut last year by UK Sails in Marmaris - and had the torn one recut and repaired - but we use the Kemp Sail now and it is wonderful - in and out easily - no issues

[alenka]

The other thing which might help resolve yr jamming is to move the stopper on the boom traveller back a bit. i now have mine about half way along the mast. this gives a much better horizontal pull on the sail when you are unfurling. It also increases the distance of the 2:1 purchase on the clew which also helps.



Following on from our sail re-cut a couple of years ago we've had little problems deploying the sail until the last few weeks of the season and then we were back to square one.

The easiest way to unfurl is back to hand pulling the foot of the sail out of the mast. There is very little resistance which suggest the problem is yet again friction with the lines. A major problem is definitely the force being more downwards than backwards on the outhaul.

I will definitely try moving the stop back a few feet.  It seems many boats I see have the stop much further back.

Any special tools need to perform this task??

[pksails]

Hi there, I know this thread is rather old and my arrival is late... (Just joined)  - I have a 2002 Sun Odyssey 52.2.

We have encountered an in mast furler issue (Sparcraft). The roll-pin that secures the drive plate (of the track) to the the "worm drive" has come out... aside from it being not the correct engineering method for this sort of strain and load... there is a mysterious array of small 'pin' bearings that have come out...? - Has anyone got a detailed exploded view of this assembly? - Thanks!! - PK