How to un jam furling in mast main.

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jac

jac

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Had an early season moment this afternoon whilst bending on my in-mast furling main and it is now jammed 1/2 in and 1/2 out. I can't twist the furler manually and even with the outhaul on a winch I can use brute force to pull it out. I think I have a fold in the sail which has gone round the furler.

Sail is now wrapped round the mast to stop it flogging but need to sort it tomorrow.

Anyone got any tricks that have worked for them. I think it will a trip up the mast to the bit that looks jammed - just what SWMBO needs on her birthday!!!!
 
The only experience I have of a jammed in-mast was on a boat where the shackle connecting the head of the sail to the top swivel had been overtightened, causing a few mm of the shackle pin to protrude. This had caught on a join in the luff groove, preventing the sail from being fully hoisted, and an over-energetic winch grinder had cranked up the halyard so tight, in an attempt to get the sail all the way up, that the top swivel had burst apart from the tension.

Probably very unlikely to be the same situation as you have, but thought I would pass it on seeing as noone else has replied.

Good luck :)
 
I bounced my 17st on the end of the boom for about 10 minutes with the sail about as up as it was going to get. Get used to it. I 've seen this a lot.
 
Mine jammed at the beginning of last season (first time ever honestly).

Reason: overtightened halyard when installing sail, followed by re-tensioning back stay when sail was stowed.

Possible solution for you may be to ease back stay so that in mast rod is able to align itself.
 
Brute force! I have been up the rig with a foot but experience says 'pull it out harder, and inuse hydraulics.
 
Wind it in a bit first as trying to pull it out only tightens it the wrong way because the fold is probably jamming on the slot.
 
Try adjusting the boom angle ,normally best at 1 in 10.Up hill at the clew.
Crack the luff tension slightly ,pull slowly but with quite a lot of force checking weather the drive rotates at all ,if rolling continue pulling .Not rolling ,you need trip up mast .
So then next check top swivel to see if it's jambed against spar wall,
Finally it's pull fabric out a pinch at a time .Need strong grip .
Good luck
 
I have an early 1980's behind-the-mast Selden Furlex so I'm thinking about things I can try when the same thing happens to me.

First resort would be bouncing on the boom but guessing the pull on the sail would be mostly downwards so might not work.

Wondering whether pulling horizontally on the sail up where it's actually jammed might be better if that could be arranged.

If I anchored the mainsheet's deck block to the backstay at the height of the jam (using the topping lift & a downhaul) I could then carry the mainsheet's boom block halfway up the mast to attach to the sail where it's jammed.
Moving the block up or down the backstay would let me adjust the angle of pull.

So far my best (only) idea to grip the sail safely near the mast is to wrap it once around a wooden batten (18 x 1 x 2 ish?) then grip that tightly between another two battens using two or three g-clamps. A bridle to attach the boom block to the clamps, then haul on the mainsheet.

Am I crazy or does anyone else think it might just work?
 
Damn! I've been there! We found that the problem was about two thirds of the way up the mast. Not easy to spot but on ours the clue was a small piece of sail sticking out of the mast. We found by pulling it in and out it was possible to get rid of this crease in the sail so that it would eventually come out. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious but we always put ours away by winching it in, not because it is stiff, but because it allowed us to wind it in under tension, thus making it roll tighter on the spar. Also we found that it was worth marking all of the halliards so that when it was working we could always put it back to the correct settings. Good luck! A fellow sufferer.
 
Last edited:
CalicoJack said:
Damn! I've been there! We found that the problem was about two thirds of the way up the mast. Not easy to spot but on ours the clue was a small piece of sail sticking out of the mast. We found by pulling it in and out it was possible to get ride of this crease in the sail so that it would eventually come out. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious but we always put ours away by winching it in, not because is stiff, but because it allowed us to wind it in under tension, thus making it roll tighter on the spar. Also we found that it was worth marking all of the halliards so that when it was working we could always put it back to the correct settings. Good luck! A fellow sufferer.
Click to expand...

Thats where the problem seems to be with ours, between the first and second spreaders. We normally have no problems as we keep some tension on and ensure boom is at correct angle. it was me being a numpty whilst fitting the vertical battens and wound in to the first batten without tension so can see a flap in the sail in the middle third of the mast.

To top it all off I've now done something strange to my neck/ shoulders so can't really drive back down / go up mast today. What a weekend.
 
Thanks to all for responses.

Back to boat today and fixed. There was a loose fold of sail coming out of the port side of the slot with the sail to starboard.
hoisted SWMBO who tucked it all back into the slot, heave on outhaul and out came the sail.

(I say that but in reality there was a lot of tugging and struggling and no movement before I remembered that the furling line was still cleated off!)

Cause was lack of tension when furling so refurled with tension and seems to be ok.
 
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