I love my Selden in mast furler
Except getting the sail installed and removed every year.
installing the shackle inside the mast to connect the head of the sail requires tiny fingers , and manipulating the loop and shackle in a very challenging way.
And losing your grip on either one means it falling down into the bottom of your mast, and not seeing it again.
Then try and find another twist shackle on a Sunday afternoon ….
The trick with this is to tie light whipping twine onto both the shackle, and pin . (About 24 inches)
Then tie the other end to a point outside the mast.
Now you can remove 99% of the stress, knowing that these parts can’t get away on you.
Simply snip the twine off once re-assembled.
BUT………
This is not the scary one.
The very scary one is the round pin that attaches the main halyard to the head swivel.
To remove it, you need to pull the cottter pin, and somehow slide it backwards out of the hole.
And …… not dropping it in the mast.
second huge scary moment.
putting it back in. Nothing to really hold onto as you try and lineup the main halyard loop,
Then, you need to rotate it to get the cotter pin back it. But.. it’s flush at this point, and nothing to grab onto. Plus, now the halyard loop has friction on it.
Here’s the solution…
Take the pin, put it in a vice on a drill press, and drill a 9/32 hole down the end. You can’t go very deep, because the cotter pin hole is about 3/8” down cross-drilled. Just go as far as you can until you are just slightly breaking through the cotter hole.
Then, re-drill the cotter hole (same size) to clean out the burr.
mix up some JB-weld.
man’s then install a short “handle” into the end of the pin
in addition to being a safety loop you will tie whipping twine to, (so that you don’t lose it in the mast) now you have something that you can rotate the pin with to line up the cotter pin hole.
This trick really works well.
the hole isn’t deep enough to get a thread into, which is why I opted for the JB weld route
Except getting the sail installed and removed every year.
installing the shackle inside the mast to connect the head of the sail requires tiny fingers , and manipulating the loop and shackle in a very challenging way.
And losing your grip on either one means it falling down into the bottom of your mast, and not seeing it again.
Then try and find another twist shackle on a Sunday afternoon ….
The trick with this is to tie light whipping twine onto both the shackle, and pin . (About 24 inches)
Then tie the other end to a point outside the mast.
Now you can remove 99% of the stress, knowing that these parts can’t get away on you.
Simply snip the twine off once re-assembled.
BUT………
This is not the scary one.
The very scary one is the round pin that attaches the main halyard to the head swivel.
To remove it, you need to pull the cottter pin, and somehow slide it backwards out of the hole.
And …… not dropping it in the mast.
second huge scary moment.
putting it back in. Nothing to really hold onto as you try and lineup the main halyard loop,
Then, you need to rotate it to get the cotter pin back it. But.. it’s flush at this point, and nothing to grab onto. Plus, now the halyard loop has friction on it.
Here’s the solution…
Take the pin, put it in a vice on a drill press, and drill a 9/32 hole down the end. You can’t go very deep, because the cotter pin hole is about 3/8” down cross-drilled. Just go as far as you can until you are just slightly breaking through the cotter hole.
Then, re-drill the cotter hole (same size) to clean out the burr.
mix up some JB-weld.
man’s then install a short “handle” into the end of the pin
in addition to being a safety loop you will tie whipping twine to, (so that you don’t lose it in the mast) now you have something that you can rotate the pin with to line up the cotter pin hole.
This trick really works well.
the hole isn’t deep enough to get a thread into, which is why I opted for the JB weld route
