jammed mainsail

[newly anonymous]

a buddy of mine is commissioning a Tyana 48, and invited me to crew for the maiden voyage last saturday, since i'll be helping him sail it to Mexico (from San Francisco) during thanksgiving. very light winds, but when we attempted to strike the main (one of those conventional ones with single-line reefing) a slide jammed in the slot at the first batten. Had to crank my buddy up on the spinnaker halyard, where it him 30 minutes to quite literally "strike" the main with hammer and screwdriver. yikes.couldn't help thinking, the whole time he was up there, about our recent chats regarding in-mast furling, and how dangerous some folks thought they were because of the jamming potential.. hmmmmm. can't say that i've ever had to take a hammer to my rig.

 

[Justin Wolfe]

Full Batten main?

Is this a full batten main w/ a conventional track? Sort of sounds like it. If so thats a big no-no. Just goes to show you build even the best concepts poorly. I'd be curious to here more about the track they are using and the type of sail/battens.

 

[Mike DiMario]

No Utopia!

What it says,If you find it, let me know!Mike D.

 

[Michael Cohn]

Did you try

raising the main again and then letting it down?MC

 

[newly anonymous]

tried that

We repeatedly attempted to raise/drop.. The problem was that the slide had been forced into the slot, and was not able to move either way. Turns out that the problem is that the sailmaker used plastic slides on the battens, which are being replaced today with metal slides (just on the battens, the rest will remain plastic). Seldon mast, UK sail, built in the chicago loft but being fixed at alameda.................always amazed at how much stuff can be broken on a maiden sail..nice to know it's not just a hunter problem, eh? we're ending up having to recut the spinnaker, rebuild an electric primary winch, weld a bail on the bow roller, re-size the bimimi struts, reposition the mainsheet bail on the boom, find a break in the seatalk network, and about a dozen minor things. all this so we can take her out on the big water next week and really shake things up between here and Mexico.