Good Day!
I have searched for an answer a good bit, but am now posting here with high hopes.
On our 2002 Hunter 306 we have stock in-mast furling (Selden). We have owned this boat for 2.5 years. Recently, the mainsail has been jamming when trying to unfurl. It comes out about 75% of the way and then gets stuck.
When looking up, I can see that there is some creasing/overlapping in the leech near the top of the sail, preventing the sail to unfurl completely.
Now, my guess is that this is happening because I'm not tightening the leech enough when furling it in. I figure that when the leech is loose and flappy then it'll bunch up during furling. The following passage from the instructions seem to validate this:
Furling:
1. The leech should be kept fairly tight when reefing or furling. Adjust the topping lift to achieve this, and the sail will form a good tight roll around the luff extrusion.
2. Whilst keeping slight tension on the outhaul line, pull in the sail using the winch for the endless reefing loop.
(On the other hand, I have seen other Internet posts suggesting to tighten the topping lift and easing the kicker, which seems to contradict the instructions.)
But the instructions only say to adjust the topping lift, mentioning nothing about a rigid vang, which I have...well, the boat has. ;-) In fact, I never use the topping lift, using it instead to haul up a sky chair. Meaning the rigid vang holds up the boom with no assistance from the topping lift.
So, am I correct in thinking that I may need to tighten, i.e. shorten, the vang to bring the end of the boom lower in order to tighten the leech and successfully furl (and hence later unfurl) the sail?
Also, any suggestions on getting the creases out of the sail?
Thanks very much in advance!
I have searched for an answer a good bit, but am now posting here with high hopes.
On our 2002 Hunter 306 we have stock in-mast furling (Selden). We have owned this boat for 2.5 years. Recently, the mainsail has been jamming when trying to unfurl. It comes out about 75% of the way and then gets stuck.
When looking up, I can see that there is some creasing/overlapping in the leech near the top of the sail, preventing the sail to unfurl completely.
Now, my guess is that this is happening because I'm not tightening the leech enough when furling it in. I figure that when the leech is loose and flappy then it'll bunch up during furling. The following passage from the instructions seem to validate this:
Furling:
1. The leech should be kept fairly tight when reefing or furling. Adjust the topping lift to achieve this, and the sail will form a good tight roll around the luff extrusion.
2. Whilst keeping slight tension on the outhaul line, pull in the sail using the winch for the endless reefing loop.
(On the other hand, I have seen other Internet posts suggesting to tighten the topping lift and easing the kicker, which seems to contradict the instructions.)
But the instructions only say to adjust the topping lift, mentioning nothing about a rigid vang, which I have...well, the boat has. ;-) In fact, I never use the topping lift, using it instead to haul up a sky chair. Meaning the rigid vang holds up the boom with no assistance from the topping lift.
So, am I correct in thinking that I may need to tighten, i.e. shorten, the vang to bring the end of the boom lower in order to tighten the leech and successfully furl (and hence later unfurl) the sail?
Also, any suggestions on getting the creases out of the sail?
Thanks very much in advance!