annageek
Well-Known Member
Does anyone have any information on the Steady Launch vertical mainsail furling system I have on our boat? It's fitted to our new-to-us Moody 37. It's an aftermarket thing that's riveted onto the aft face of the mast, covering the mast track.
I'd be particularly interested if any one has any information / manuals / photos of how its disassembled to get the the upper / lower bearings. It just isn't obvious from looking at it!
There are no grease ports (that I can see), so I can only assume it uses sealed cartridge bearings. The thing is, it's quite stiff (even after some use) and, as with most things that furl, I can only imagine it'll get stiffer over time. I think a service is probably over due.
I was a bit dubious as to how well it would perform, as the gap between the inner rotating part and the outer fixed part is very small. Indeed, when the mainsail is fully furled (except for the UV resistive fabric covered part of the clew), no matter how well you furl it, it's quite a squeeze! This makes furling it by hand almost impossible! Even unfurling it can be really tricky to get going as there's just so much friction involved when the sail's already rolled all the way in. I can't imagine having the last part of the sail to be furled rubbing up against the inside of the outer extrusion of the system is doing the sail any good at all, either.
The mainsail that came with the boat is nearly new, and it could be that the sail cloth is a bit too heavy (although it doesn't seem to be of a particularly heavy cloth), but at the same time, the previous main had vertical battens. I have never tried putting the old main up, but I have no clue how it would have fit into the furler with the vertical battens fitted. Curiously, the boom as been extended about 70cm at some point - Presumably to get a bit more sail area. If this was done after the furler was specced/fitted, I suppose it could simply be that the longer permissable foot length makes for a sail that's just a bit too big for the system.
Is it normal for a furling main sail in an aftermarket behind-the-mast furler to be such a tight squeeze, or are we just going to prematurely wear things out?
The obvious (cheaper) option is to have the sail adjusted / remade to have a shorter foot length, so there's less to furl, but on an already very conservatively canvassed boat, I'm reluctant to do this. If money were no object, I'd much prefer to revert to a normal slab reefed, battened main, but the cost involved could be quite significant.
I'd be particularly interested if any one has any information / manuals / photos of how its disassembled to get the the upper / lower bearings. It just isn't obvious from looking at it!
There are no grease ports (that I can see), so I can only assume it uses sealed cartridge bearings. The thing is, it's quite stiff (even after some use) and, as with most things that furl, I can only imagine it'll get stiffer over time. I think a service is probably over due.
I was a bit dubious as to how well it would perform, as the gap between the inner rotating part and the outer fixed part is very small. Indeed, when the mainsail is fully furled (except for the UV resistive fabric covered part of the clew), no matter how well you furl it, it's quite a squeeze! This makes furling it by hand almost impossible! Even unfurling it can be really tricky to get going as there's just so much friction involved when the sail's already rolled all the way in. I can't imagine having the last part of the sail to be furled rubbing up against the inside of the outer extrusion of the system is doing the sail any good at all, either.
The mainsail that came with the boat is nearly new, and it could be that the sail cloth is a bit too heavy (although it doesn't seem to be of a particularly heavy cloth), but at the same time, the previous main had vertical battens. I have never tried putting the old main up, but I have no clue how it would have fit into the furler with the vertical battens fitted. Curiously, the boom as been extended about 70cm at some point - Presumably to get a bit more sail area. If this was done after the furler was specced/fitted, I suppose it could simply be that the longer permissable foot length makes for a sail that's just a bit too big for the system.
Is it normal for a furling main sail in an aftermarket behind-the-mast furler to be such a tight squeeze, or are we just going to prematurely wear things out?
The obvious (cheaper) option is to have the sail adjusted / remade to have a shorter foot length, so there's less to furl, but on an already very conservatively canvassed boat, I'm reluctant to do this. If money were no object, I'd much prefer to revert to a normal slab reefed, battened main, but the cost involved could be quite significant.
