Over the years, and worsening in the last year, my mast furling main became increasingly harder and harder to furl and unfurl. Like minor pains, one gets used to the inconvenience and adapts until it reaches a crisis stage. It got to the point that I could neither unfurl, nor furl with out the need of the winch and serious effort on the winch handle. I finally realized there was a problem.
I went to the US-Spars website and did a bit of research on maintenance and discovered that the bearings should be hosed off while furling/unfurling and then lubed with WD-40, which I had not done, ever, so I did. No joy. The problem persisted.
Then I watched some videos on their website which showed how the sail is supposed to unfurl and furl with just minimal effort on the lines and no use of the winch. I was sure that I was in for a massive repair expense and would need to drop the main, remove the furling drum and send it in for service. Thankfully, one of their videos shared that if there was a (pre)bend in the mast, possibly put there by a rigger inexperienced with mast furling mains, that would be a potential problem. Sure enough, when I looked up the mast, it was bent to aft.
I called the rigger that had last tuned my boat, wondering if he had done that and if he could come over an have a look. He is not an inexperienced rigger, and is in fact the guy who rigs all of the new Beneteaus and Jeneaus when they are delivered off of the truck. He said it would be quite a while before he could come have a look because he was involved in several new projects. He thought about it and said that there are quite a few things that could interfere with the furling, but suggested that the main halyard might be too tight. I said that I had never changed the halyard tension since I had bought the boat over 6 years ago. He then told me that the halyards tend to shrink over time due to "particulates", which I found incredulous.
Well, my next visit to the boat, I found that the main halyard, above the locking jam was about half the size of the line below it. I let off about 1 1/2 to 2 inches and miraculously the mast bend disappeared. I was then able to furl and unfurl again with almost no effort. Who'd a thought. I owe my rigger a nice bottle of his preference.
I hope this helps someone with a similar problem.
I went to the US-Spars website and did a bit of research on maintenance and discovered that the bearings should be hosed off while furling/unfurling and then lubed with WD-40, which I had not done, ever, so I did. No joy. The problem persisted.
Then I watched some videos on their website which showed how the sail is supposed to unfurl and furl with just minimal effort on the lines and no use of the winch. I was sure that I was in for a massive repair expense and would need to drop the main, remove the furling drum and send it in for service. Thankfully, one of their videos shared that if there was a (pre)bend in the mast, possibly put there by a rigger inexperienced with mast furling mains, that would be a potential problem. Sure enough, when I looked up the mast, it was bent to aft.
I called the rigger that had last tuned my boat, wondering if he had done that and if he could come over an have a look. He is not an inexperienced rigger, and is in fact the guy who rigs all of the new Beneteaus and Jeneaus when they are delivered off of the truck. He said it would be quite a while before he could come have a look because he was involved in several new projects. He thought about it and said that there are quite a few things that could interfere with the furling, but suggested that the main halyard might be too tight. I said that I had never changed the halyard tension since I had bought the boat over 6 years ago. He then told me that the halyards tend to shrink over time due to "particulates", which I found incredulous.
Well, my next visit to the boat, I found that the main halyard, above the locking jam was about half the size of the line below it. I let off about 1 1/2 to 2 inches and miraculously the mast bend disappeared. I was then able to furl and unfurl again with almost no effort. Who'd a thought. I owe my rigger a nice bottle of his preference.
I hope this helps someone with a similar problem.