In mast furling pre-bend help?

Courageous

Courageous

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www.courageous.it
Hi Chaps. Have had my beneteau oceanis 351 for 5 years now and when purchased the broker advised me to be quite particular with the in mast furling technique as get it wrong and the main would snag. I used his method carefully and had no problems for a while then problems started, eventually becoming so that it was 100% failure rate. During this time I made no changes to the rig whatsoever. So I assumed that the elvestrom main was ageing and becoming baggy. I purchased a brand new set of Hood sails and the problem still exists so now I have to look further.

I am concerned that there may be too much pre-bend in the mast and am at a slight loss as to how to correct this. For those unfamiliar with the type she has a forestay through the furling genoa and two back stays. One set of main shrouds with 2 sets of spreaders. Two sets of baby stays.

There is no obvious way of tensioning the forestay as the anchor point seems to be a set point (the roller arrangement is on chainplates).

Would easing off the backstays and front baby stays help if I then tension the aft pair of baby stays?

Would appreciate any assistance. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
That sounds like the problems we had. We found that having too much halyard tension was the main cause. Every time we furl, we now slacken the halyard untill it baggs, then pull it up hand tight, then furl....it now works every time and have not had a problem since! Having prebend may cause problems but give this a try first.
 
Yes, thanx sailing86. I did notice your reponse to a thread on the search facility. As it happens I'm hoping I may have it sorted now after googling the problem. It looks as if I may have had the boom angle wrong as the angle was closer to 120 degrees than the 90 advised. This certainly seems to have eased the issue working the system in calm winds alongside - the acid test will come later of course.

Thanx for your input though.
 
Nah. Sorry me old, that's not correct. Generally, playing around with the kicker/vang/whatever will solve most problems with furling mainsails.
How do I know.....sailed a number of yachts with various main furlers. Lots.
Practice with variying tension on the kicker and mainsheet tension. The correct combination will make itself apparent!!
 
I have always found that the mast must be straight otherwise the inmast furling just jams. Any backstay tension and the mast does not furl in.

Iain
 
We had that problem too, worried n fiddled with mast bend/backstay/halliard tension but finally(touch wood) sorted it by combination of easing vang, and slacking topping lift off so boom at circa 90 degrees during unfurl/furl cycle.

The 'live' boom pulling the sail luff taut seems to be the key, plus keeping a bit of tension on the 'lazy' line of the furl/unfurl lines- stops our main unrolling too soon inside the mast rather than smoothly out onto the boom and makes it furl tighter in reverse.

A new thinner(8mm b on b ) in boom furling line has made a lot of difference to speed and tightness of furl/unfurl cycle. We may have to change it more often, but much easier to winch in than 12+mm tired b on b line boat came with.
Dick T.
 
I had this problem for two years on my Beneteau Oceanis 311. The solution has been found in half an hour by a "rigger" who came on board and looked at the boom: he modified the boom angle and fixed it by the vang (a red tape on the vang sheet to remember and retrieve the right position after its use). But the best was that he moved the "car stop" that you can see on the upper side of the boom till the two sides of the mainsail have the same tension. Now I furl and unfurl the mainsail without the use of any winch handle!
Antonello
 
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