Praxinoscope
Well-known member
One of our club members has just dropped his mast and found this (see attached image) at the head of the forestay. The furling genoa gear has obviously been slowly cutting its way through the wire as it turns during furling. This is not the first time I have seen this happen.
To me it seems a bit of poor design that allows this to happen, I don't know if any wire terminal manufacturer has thought about lengthening the 'tang' of the terminal so that the head of the furlong gear rotates around the steel of the tang rather than the strands of the wire.
Maybe there is a technical reason this can't be done, it would mean replacing the head components of the furling gear to accommodate the larger diameter of the tang, but I can't see a reason why this solution wouldn't work.
To me it seems a bit of poor design that allows this to happen, I don't know if any wire terminal manufacturer has thought about lengthening the 'tang' of the terminal so that the head of the furlong gear rotates around the steel of the tang rather than the strands of the wire.
Maybe there is a technical reason this can't be done, it would mean replacing the head components of the furling gear to accommodate the larger diameter of the tang, but I can't see a reason why this solution wouldn't work.