Beneteau first 211 Roller furling and keel string problems

[sailingjeff]

Hi All. Its been some time since I last posted but now we have a boat which has proved to be excellent so far.

however in use I have come arcross two problems which I am hoping someone with more experience may be able to give some advice on.

The first is the roller reefing system (plastimo) With any sort of tension on the jib halliard when the furling line is pulled the halliard winds istself around with the sail at the top of the forestay and jams the system. Even slackened off but with any wind on the sail it will jam in the same way. Ive looked at the assembly that goes up the forestay on the halliard and it runs free, but somthing is happening at the top which of course I cant see. Has anyone had this problem and managed to solve it ? Ideally without taking the mast down.

Second problem is maybe only familiar to 211 owners as the string which comes out of the keel box in the boat and gives and indication of keel position, has broken and I am trying to get an idea about how to replace it. I guess the boat will need to be lifted ? but is the end which attaches to the keel accessible from below the boat?

Again any help / advice gratefully received.

Jeff

 

[theoldsalt]

The reason the jib halyard wraps with the furling maybe because it is too parallel to the forestay. The halyard should be at about 20 to 30 degrees when the jib is fully hoisted. This can be done by moving the halyard diverter or fitting one if one is not fitted.

 

[BAtoo]

The jib halyard needs some form of diverter; plastimo do one in some sort of plastic which, IIRR, can be put on with the rig up.. Alternatively reeve the halyard through a smooth eye riveted onto the mast to give a decent (20' degrees or so) angle between the halyard and stay.

Don't know about the other bit....

 

[theoldsalt]

For halyard routing see the example in the Furlex manual.

Section 5 page 22.

http://www.seldenmast.com/_download.cfm?id=6618&download=6966680&filename=...

 

[Searush]

There is an L-shaped angled shackle connects the halliard to the top swivel, that should be connected so that it pushes the halliard away from the swivel. The "heel" of the L should be pressing against the top of the swivel. Common sense & logic seems to suggest it is fitted the opposite way round to avoid the swivel, & let it rotate easily, but that will cause halliard wraps like you have.

You should not need any extra discs, altho they are available to buy if correctly connecting the shackle isn't enough. Every so often I get this problem at the start of the season only to quickly remember that the shackle doesn't connect up in the "obvious" or logical way!

 

[Puggy]

String on keel

Hi Jeff,

I had a 210 and replaced the string. You can only do it with the boat lifted out and the keel dropped down, from underneath the boat. I took the chance to replace the nylon bushes in the keel swivel (reduces the side to side clonking on the keel when downwind in light airs) and also the nut into which the keel lifting mechanism screws into, as they are cheap parts and the lift is the expensive bit. If doing the bushes, you need to think about supporting the keel when you undo the pivot bolt: I used a stack of pallets.

Good luck

Piers

 

[Miker]

I had the same problem with the jib halyard twisting around the forestay when I first had my 260 in 1997. The strain eventually weakened the forestay and the mast came down on top of me when trying to furl the jib.

The problem was that the halyard was twisting around the forstay above the swivel. The problem was rectified by the rigger fitting a rope strop betwen the swivel and top of the jib to decrease the distance between the swivel and the mast top halyard pulley, if that is what it is called. It turned out that the boat had not been correctly rigged by the original supplier. I've had no such problem again.

My lifting keel string broke years ago. As I am only a fairweather cruising sailor, my keel only goes up if I run aground or the boat comes out for the winter. Otherwise it stays down. I judge whether the keel is down by the winding handle becoming slack. With my keel mechanism, I have to be careful as it is all too easy to wind the keel lifting rod clean off its thread. When I have to employ a system of ropes and pulleys to lift the keel suficiently to reattach the winding rod - a tricky business!

 

[Iain C]

I have a plastimo furler and experienced the same issue...despite years of trouble free operation with no diverter. Basically the plastic plug at the top of the headfoil started to crack and it was just enough to hook the halyard causing me no end of issues. And of course, the more times it wraps, the more likely you are to damage it further making things worse...

A diverter cost about a tenner and tends to be open backed like a saddle, meaning you can fit in situ whilst still dangling from the halyard, however I guess dropping the rig on your boat is easy enough anyway. I've had no issues since fitting it.

I did try flipping the shackle over as suggested but it made no difference to my boat, the halyard was still in the same place and got fouled.