Plastimo (609) removal

[Trevor_swfyc]

My roller reefing is circa 1988 but works fine but it needs some attention as the joins in the foil have started to mark / stain my sail, so it requires new rivits and a general clean up. It looked easy to remove the reefing system but no, I removed the bottle screw but the roller reef drum would not pass over the bottle screw thread attached to the forestay. As the boat was on the mooring and it started to rain I gave up.
My question is how do I go about removing this roller reef system?

Many thanks.
Trevor


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[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

Are you trying to remove it with the mast still up? You cannot pull the wire through the poles with a swaged end fitted. But? I may have an idea, it might not work though.

I changed my rigging over winter and have a similar R/R 608 I think. You can change the rivets without removing the r/r but it will possibly mean going up in a harness.

The poles are designed to snap on around the wire during installation, I think you may be able to reverse this, but you will have to remove them from the drum.

If you drill out rivets as shown above it should seperate the poles from the drum. By pushing up the poles the two should? come apart. Bringing down the poles by pulling them off the wire may now be a possibility with care.

At the top you may also have to remove the cap by drilling out the rivets. This will leave the drum on the forestay, but I think if you remove the four stainless bolts underneath there should be a way to remove it. I can't remember off hand.

hope this helps some, it may not work, just a way that I might attempt if in a similar situation to yourself. BTW, in case you are wondering, I am systematically photographing everything on board so I can fault find or order spares from home, works quite well so far....

<hr width=100% size=1>Julian

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[Rick]

Think Julian's on the right track - I've got an 810, but I think they're the same extrusions and plastice bearings as 608.

Drill out the rivets on the drum unit, and push the extrusions up a high as you can.
Drill out the rivets at the 'feeder' section, and remove the feeder.
Pull the plastic section down, (it's shaped like a figure 8, but open on at the middle and top - one chamber of the "8" is up against the stay, while the other 'chamber' is the foil track) - as it comes down, so long as you have some space, you can pull it off the stay, and clear the drum assembly.
Now drill out the rivets to the next section, and the foil piece will pull clear of the shroud - repeat for next section.


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[Trevor_swfyc]

Rick & Jools,

Thanks for the help, I have now cleaned the lowest section join by doing what jools suggested by first drilling out the upper two rivits separating the section, cleaning the join then re-riviting, then repeat for the lower two rivits on the same section. This is a bit tedious and I will now put the job off to be added to the winter maintenance list when I can use a ladder to get to the remaining sections.
PS. I cleaned the foil stains off the sail with dil sodium bicarbonate and a nail brush, soap and water would not touch it, any better ideas?
Many thanks.
Trevor

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[Rick]

Any other ideas?

Yep - I made a mistake - the feeder is mounted above a short section of the alloy track - you need to remove this after drilling the rivets, and then proceed to remove plastic, and continue.

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