Sealing a de-cored furling line

[thinwater]

I meant chafe in the cover rather than the stitching, but your experience is better than mine.

Chafe is the enemy of every furler line, particularly for those sailors that roller reef frequently. The tiniest misalignment can be deadly.

About 7 years ago a reader suggested I test Yale Maxijacket. The chafe protection claims seemed crazy for a coating that goes on like latex varnish. Well, they are all true. This stuff will extend the life of polyester or nylon DB braid by at least 5x and generally more than 10x. You won't believe it until you try it. It does stiffen the line slightly, so I would not use it on portions you handle or that go on winches. But it works great on furler lines and docklines. Probably chafe prone halyards, but I have not had that problem since I started using it.

I don't know of a UK source. Spinlock makes RP25, but it is for a different purpose and is not nearly as effective against chafe. It is mostly to prevent core slippage in clutches, which it does well.

[Just an independent product tester, not involved with Yale, just a convert.]

Maxijacket

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Much of the logic (guesswork ) in splicing a length of dyneema was that in a dark wild night if something went wrong up front unnoticed then the strength (3800Kg MBS) of the 5mm dyneema would allow the line to be chafed nearly all the way through but still be plenty strong enough, plus dyneema is pretty chafe resistant to start out with and less dynamic movement with the near zero stretch should help as well. Furling line parting in the middle of a dark wild dark night letting a full headsail out with no way to reef is a very scary thought....

Yes, it's a "fail-dangerous" system. There should be a locking mechanism incorporated in furlers so that the furling line is not taking the load.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

I can say that a partly jammed furler is also a nightmare if the wind is up, probably the worst failure mode for a furler other than losing the forestay.
I do like the dyneema idea, but it sounds like it might be overkill, and my splicing is rubbish...

No, I can tell you from experience that the worst nightmare is when the line chafes through and what was a scrap of sail suddenly becomes a full genoa, requiring two people on a bucking foredeck to get it under control. (And I use the word "bucking in both its sense of movement and how it might be used by Mrs Brown" )

 

[Refueler]

No, I can tell you from experience that the worst nightmare is when the line chafes through and what was a scrap of sail suddenly becomes a full genoa, requiring two people on a bucking foredeck to get it under control.

or as I had ... forestay coming free from deck and it unfurling in F7 increasing.

 

[[163233]]

No, I can tell you from experience that the worst nightmare is when the line chafes through and what was a scrap of sail suddenly becomes a full genoa, requiring two people on a bucking foredeck to get it under control.

Pretty similar to the jammed out problem with the advantage that you can at least drop it.
So you would leave the line as it is?

We might have to have a leave it, de-core it, or splice it vote...

or as I had ... forestay coming free from deck and it unfurling in F7 increasing.

LoL I think you win on that one.

 

[Refueler]

Pretty similar to the jammed out problem with the advantage that you can at least drop it.
So you would leave the line as it is?

We might have to have a leave it, de-core it, or splice it vote...


LoL I think you win on that one.

The full genny unfurled and was at 90 deg from mast head ..... one spreader collapsed - couldn't take it ....

My pal - Harry ex SBS .... just mind over matter hauled that lot in with the furling line ...... his hands still today show the marks. I was using the spinnaker halyard to try jury a forestay to try save the mast.
With Harry's Herculaneum effort - we got the genny down and lashed ... then we had Lifeboat rocket line ... towing line ... back into Bembridge ...
Unfortunately as we came through the winding channel - the tow line was a bit too long and they wound us in too close .. when they touch bottom and stopped - there was nothing I could do and my stem / pulpit hit their stbd 1/4 ... increased damage to my stemhead and buckled the pulpit ...
PLEASE understand - I was and still am - extremely grateful for what they did and would never try hold them for it.

Once we got alongside - of course there was a form to complete for their log ... and we got chatting. As they said - it was not often they actually had real opportunity to fir Rocket Line in such conditions etc.

For anyone interested - I did not make any Pan Pan or Mayday call .... I actually called Solent CG and advised them of our situation ... they advised that with the weather worsening - they would send the LB.
They also commended for us not panicking and making distress call !!