in-mast furling lay up

[samwise]

Anyone with experience of de-rigging an in-mast furling system?
We have an EasyReef system on our Sadler and the mast has to come out this winter. Any special measures we should take? Grateful for any advice.

 

[Celena]

Didn't do anything special when unmasting our boat fitted with Kemp Reeffin' Plus. Removed sail first of course. Does make it easy to grease bearings but that might not be necessary for Easyreef. Have you tried Easyreef? I found them pretty helpful (We have a MaxiRoach main: same company)

 

[Ray_G]

I have a Maxi Roach mainsail on order. How do you find it performs? Does it live up to the claims they make?

 

[Ray_G]

My Easyreef mainsail furling gear is due to be fitted to my Beneteau 44 in January. Is there any information you can offer regarding its use i.e. things to watch out for? Do you operate the system with a straight mast or with some pre-bend set? This is a first for me, to have a furling mainsail and I guess my nervousness shows. However, advancing years make it a sensible (?) option.

 

[robp]

Yes, it's brilliant. Get Paul's advice on halyard tension. That's important. Re the mast, mine has a fair degree of pre-bend, which the riggers took out when I was having trouble unfurling the original sail. Turned out that the sail was bagged and binding up with the leach in the slot. After having fitted the Maxiroach and been shown "the ropes" by them, it's been good. I'm going to fit a better out-haul car system this winter. The original Beneteau slot on the boom version binds terribly.

Also, I fitted the vertically battened Genoa and both sails together transformed the boat.

(No, I'm not connected with Maxiroach)!

 

[samwise]

Ray

Sorry to be long getting back. We have found the sail excellent, perfect for short or single handed. We sail with a couple of children and it makes life a lot easier.
With the vertical battens you don't get that awful flogging and the system allows you to tweak the sail shape easily and quickly.
My only concern was the possible effect on the righting moment. I have had some electronic correspondence with EasyReef who were very reassuring. However, I think you have to accept that any extra weight upstairs is not a good thing. But then we have no intention of doing a Transat!

Regards

Sam

 

[Celena]

Sorry delay in replying...nothing really to add to othet posts, we like ours a lot. Would recommend a rod kicker to support the boom however instead of normal topping lift, but not essential (we havn't got one) so have creased the head rather because we're too lazy to go to the mast to tension the topping lift before furling.