Update on Furling Mainsail Problems

[Viktor Eysselein]

This is to give you an update on my previous post on problems furling in and out the mainsail and thanks to all comments.

My Doyle mainsail on my hunter 45CC was 4 years old - no problems for 3 years - then it would get stuck furling it out, sometimes furling it in even though I followed all advices (keeping tension furling in, be on port tack furling it out etc.). It appeared that the sail was getting pouched out too much causing it folding over and jamming the furling.

My rigger in Mar Del Rey did recut the sail - it worked for a few times - then back to jamming.

I got a new sail made from Mack Sails (best send the old one in so it fits). The sail is flat, has short vertical battens and works fine. I covered it with Sailkote to make it slippery. The stopper for the boom car had to be moved more to the mast to avoid wrinkling of the sail and allow equal tension on the foot and leach.

Long story short: If your sail gets stretched out too much and is pouching you may have to get a new sail.

Thanks for all you help!

Viktor

 

[shemandr]

Thanks for the report. The furling mainsail jamming problem has been discussed a lot on this forum. For me it was the conversion from full length vertical batten to partial length that helped the most. But, I believe that a blown out mainsail would also be a problem. Flat is better for many reasons when it comes to sails.

 

[capta]

This is exactly why I believe there needs to be some new thought put into the design of a sail for in mast roller furling. We are going through the same thing right now, trying to get another year out of our main.
I do not think any sail maker has yet to specifically design a sail for inmast furling, or better, reefing, other than the battens thing.
I have decided that our next main will be cut like the sails in the attached pic. They will have very small panels and therefor they will be less likely to bag out between the seams. At the points that I reef the sail, there will be vertical chafe panels, as we sail reefed 90% of the time and that only makes sense.
If anybody can see a problem with these ideas, I would very much like to hear from you. Our main has probably only been used about 300 times and I'm very disappointed that it already needs replacement.

 

[gettinthere]

Mack Sails has a lot of experience with custom making sails for a variety of furling systems

 

[Ron Roman]

I have had problems with jamming in the past and I am convinced that if seldon would make the slot a little a little bigger it would solve a lot of problems.

 

[Tango Six]

Aggiornamento sulla avvolgibile Problemi Randa

Hello,
I too on my 38 hunter I had problems with the furling mainsail with battens.
I first modified by removing the mainsail battens but only after I discovered the real cause and the luff of the tree that is not suitable for slats mounted. There are also more subtle cues and would not give problems. Too bad that the sail was now changed.

Tango Six

 

[CarlN]

My mast furling problem in my last boat started after a rigger "tuned" my mast including putting in more prebend. Taking the prebend out fixed the problem.

I had a discussion with Mack where they were quite convincing that they have figured out a better way to cut mast and boom furling sails. Worth talking to them if you are considering a new sail.

Mack might also suggest that your current mainsail is probably made of low grade cloth now used by most sailmakers for woven cloth sails to keep price down - that stretches more than the cloth used ten years ago. They prefer the more expensive Challenge High Aspect and Marblehead cloths.

http://macksails.com/sailclth.htm

 

[Tango Six]

Aggiornamento Silla avvolgibile Randa PROBLEMI

Hello,
** what you say is right and you can do it all. I am in Sardinia Italy and I like sailmaker Andrea Mura. See the website to see all its shipyards.

http://www.veleriaandreamura.com/

http://www.ventodisardegna.com/

 

[capta]

My mast furling problem in my last boat started after a rigger "tuned" my mast including putting in more prebend. Taking the prebend out fixed the problem.

I had a discussion with Mack where they were quite convincing that they have figured out a better way to cut mast and boom furling sails. Worth talking to them if you are considering a new sail.

Mack might also suggest that your current mainsail is probably made of low grade cloth now used by most sailmakers for woven cloth sails to keep price down - that stretches more than the cloth used ten years ago. They prefer the more expensive Challenge High Aspect and Marblehead cloths.

http://macksails.com/sailclth.htm

I would hazard a guess the this tape drive main was a much more expensive cloth than any dacron.
I've had dacron sails in the past hold up to 30k of hard use with less deterioration than this tape drive crap. Shame on any sailmaker (UK, City Island, NY, in this case) who convinces an owner to try a new, esoteric sail cloth, for what is obviously not racing boat. By the way, the deterioration on this sail began when this sail had probably been up at most, 70 times, and stored each winter in a climate controlled loft.