Selden in-mast furling questions

[Sailor Sue]

We are helping someone who is new to sailing who just purchased a Hunter 340. He just received a new mainsail, (a big thanks to Rich Wilber at Sobstad Midwest for building and delivering the sail to Florida in 2 weeks!) which we helped him install today. Never having had any experience with in-mast sails, we have some questions.

Does it matter which way the sail furls into the mast, as the mandrel can rotate either direction.
How hard should it be to roll the entire sail into the mast? We needed the winch to get virtually the whole sail furled. We also needed the winch to pull almost all of the sail back out. Is some of that difficulty due to the sail being new, with very stiff dacron?
After sails have been in and out a few times is it necessary to use a winch to set or furl an in-mast sail?

Thanks for any advice you might have.

 

[Rick486]

First thing to do is contact Selden US and ask for the owner's manual for the mast.....

 

[tfox2069]

We are helping someone who is new to sailing who just purchased a Hunter 340. He just received a new mainsail, (a big thanks to Rich Wilber at Sobstad Midwest for building and delivering the sail to Florida in 2 weeks!) which we helped him install today. Never having had any experience with in-mast sails, we have some questions.

Does it matter which way the sail furls into the mast, as the mandrel can rotate either direction.
How hard should it be to roll the entire sail into the mast? We needed the winch to get virtually the whole sail furled. We also needed the winch to pull almost all of the sail back out. Is some of that difficulty due to the sail being new, with very stiff dacron?
After sails have been in and out a few times is it necessary to use a winch to set or furl an in-mast sail?

Thanks for any advice you might have.

It does matter which way the sail furls into the mast (likely counterclockwise), and it should not take a winch handle to furl or unfurl. If it does that indicates a whole lot of friction that you need to locate and fix before you break (or tear) something expensive. That could be in the mast, OR the boom (or both).

There's a ton of info on the site about this subject that should help. Here's one thread:

In mast furling main working much better now | Sailboat Owners Forums

The best way to think about it is it is a system - like your auxiliary engine, or your a/c unit(s), or your freshwater, etc. Agree with @Rick486 - get the manual, read it from cover to cover (or have your friend do it!), then read it again, then uninstall and reinstall the sail. It is definitely worth getting to know inside and out so it's not a source of frustration on the boat. They are great systems, but need to be maintained (maybe this one hasn't been maintained properly) and used properly to function well.

Good luck with your friend!

 

[PaulK]

In-Mast roller-furling can be quite finicky. Halyard tension, boom angle (topping lift! vang!), sheet tension, sail tension, and lots of moving parts all over the place, any one of which can cause a problem . Rick and Foxy have the right idea: read up and do it twenty times until you know you've got it down.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

For a small fee, I can let you have the "Official Selden Installation Manual" and a few other items which contain a few hidden gems about in-mast furling.

You should never have a glitch with your in-mast furling as long as you follow all of the Selden instructions very carefully. We've had a few characters post their problems here and it's a mystery how they still have a sail attached to the furler ............. or still have a mast attached to the boat, for that matter. I've had mine in service for 24 years and have never had a hiccup when single handing in heavy weather. I've renewed the continuous furling line twice to keep to keep things moving along smoothly.

read up and do it twenty times until you know you've got it down.

Definitely. At least 20 times while tied to the dock on a calm day.

 

[Sailor Sue]

For a small fee, I can let you have the "Official Selden Installation Manual" and a few other items which contain a few hidden gems about in-mast furling.

Ralph,
What a wealth of information you've linked...I'm curious if Hunter includes any of the Selden manuals in their owner's manual. I'll pass all these links on to the new owner. Hopefully, he can figure if things are set up correctly, or what things need to be adjusted. Thanks again for your assistance.

And thanks to the others who have responded.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

".I'm curious if Hunter includes any of the Selden manuals in their owner's manual."

I know that when I received my boat new in 1998 as a 1999 model, there was little in the way of any manufacturer's manuals in the Hunter Owner's Manual." I think in this day of internet for anything you can imagine, it's pretty much expected that the consumer get their own manuals from the manufacturer's web site. Mind you, this is 24 years ago and things may have changed for the better during that time
PS. if you believe that, got a piece of a bridge you may be interested in buying .

 

[kbgunn]

I agree with the suggestion to ask Seldén for the manuals. It's easy. Take a picture of the serial number etched into the base of the mast and send it to info@seldenus.com

Ask them for links to the manuals and parts list for the mast and boom. They will reply in a day or two with links to download the manuals.


The sail should wrap around the starboard side of the furler according to the picture below. Turning the furling winch clockwise ensures proper wrap.
I bought a new sail using relatively light 7.5 oz cloth and it required a little more encouragement to furl the first season. But only a little more. It should be something you can accomplish from the cockpit using the furling loop assuming the other things mentioned are setup correctly. I would not go back to a traditional mainsail now. The little bit of shape control you sacrifice for ease of operation is well worth it for my type of sailing since I'm not racing round the bouys.

 

[Sailor Sue]

Progress report:
Thanks to the Selden manual we determined the sail was rolled the wrong way. (And we had a 50/50 chance of getting it right!)
We were able to pull the sail out and back in again without using the winch. I'm hoping our initial issue was just due to the stiffness of the brand new sail.

Thanks again for the responses and suggestions.

 

[George Braun]

The age and condition of the sail is of primary importance. We bought a lightly used 2008 Hunter 36 with Selden in-mast furling last year, our first boat with furling main. Like almost all Selden, furls CCW. Had severe issues with furling at first, 90% of them were solved by a new triradial sail even though the original sail wasn't awful it was enough to cause real issues. The last 10% of the issues were solved by working with a knowledgeable sailmaker on halyard, vang, and outhaul tension. Now it's smooth as butter and very low effort, certainly don't ever need to put any line on a winch as long as correctly headed not quite directly into the wind when furling or unfurling. 10-15 degrees off to port works really well, which was more than I thought would be needed.

 

[LloydB]

I am curious about what kind of instructions were sent with the new sail. I ask because these days we are generally beginning to pay for instant delivery instead of good product support.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

I'm hoping our initial issue was just due to the stiffness of the brand new sail.

Buried somewhere in the other Selden manuals I sent you was mention of a slight tension on the outhaul to ensure the sail goes in tightly wrapped.

I will never understand how so many people can have so many problems with Selden in mast furling. Mine have always worked perfectly starting as a new 1999 unused boat with new unused UK sails. Magic maybe ?

 

[Sailor Sue]

Buried somewhere in the other Selden manuals I sent you was mention of a slight tension on the outhaul to ensure the sail goes in tightly wrapped.

I will never understand how so many people can have so many problems with Selden in mast furling. Mine have always worked perfectly starting as a new 1999 unused boat with new unused UK sails. Magic maybe ?

That was noted, and we did keep some tension on the outhaul. Hopefully, with a little practice, and a few more in and out cycles, our friend will come to terms with his in-mast furler and his "new" boat.

On a personal note, once I saw the diagrams of the Selden mechanism in the links you sent, I was glad our last boat came with a Leisure Furl boom.

 

[Sailor Sue]

I am curious about what kind of instructions were sent with the new sail. I ask because these days we are generally beginning to pay for instant delivery instead of good product support.

I don't know if there was any documentation provided with this sail. But I do know that we have been dealing with this Sobstad loft for about 25 years. In the past we've dealt with 5 or 6 other lofts, including a couple of the well known, big buck sail makers. We wouldn't keep buying Sobstad sails if they didn't build quality sails and provide good customer service (like delivering a sail in 2 weeks). Just our experience....