Mahe 36: Rig and Sails

[lstyles]

I was wondering if anyone has had to replace their stack pack on their main? Mine is pretty beat up and I am looking to replace it. Any suggestions of where to go?
thanks,
Lori

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Lori,
Every winter Marin does a restauration job on the stackpack. Strengthening where worn, re-stitching where necessary, improvements. This way we hope that it will last still many years.
Also I made a system to furl and bind the stack pack on both sides of the boom. This prevents wear from flapping. But can only be used when not reefed, alas.

[MKB53]

My Sack Pack is also about to die after being patched a few times. I was eyeing some of the V shaped cages you see on the booms of bigger boats and wondering whether retro fitting one of those was an option. The weight carried by the stack pack seems to be a big contributer to the wear.

Martin

[vayacondios]

We had to take ours off and have it resewn because the zipper thread came out, was not UV, and the sailmaker said at that time that the bag was not reinforced properly to hold the weight of the sail. So where the lazy jack lines attach, he made a strengthing belt for each position. Now the weight of the sail is supported by the belt rather than the rather weak bag supporting the heavy sail. The belt goes from one side to the other and is looped through the battan in the bag, so where the lazy jack line pulls up on the battan, the belt is held up supporting the sail.

[MKB53]

Hi Rozzie

That makes sense. Mine is probably too far gone and any repair would be temporary.

Cheers
Martin

[lstyles]

Mine is too far gone for repair and I am having a lot of trouble finding anyone to make me a new one. Has anyone had theirs replaced so I know where to go to get one? I did contact the Mack sail people about a Mack pack but that will require a little more work to I stall as it's a little different.
Thanks
Lori

[Wayward Wind]

Can someone please tell me the length of the first reefing line?
Cheers
JohnC

[Wayward Wind]

Answering my own question: it is 18m. Should have read the manuals before posting the question : )

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Wayward wind,
Officially it's 18, actually 19 is better. But I would add 2 * 1.5 meters to cut off two times, the end is wearing fast if you're sailing reefed regularly.

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi all,
In the past 3 years we have had two instances of the furling line wearing through and breaking. I have previously assumed that the wear was due to the front block, or was due to the line touching the edge of the starboard forward hatch. (For the latter I have installed a 2nd line guide on the stanchions from Spinlock)
But this summer I have found out (admittedly late) that the wear is due to the furling line touching the edge of the furling drum, when the jib is reefed.
See attached picture, where the furling line nearly touches the lower edge of the drum. If we had reefed a little bit less, the line would have touched the lower edge of the drum.
The movement of the jib due to sea / wind variations will continuously rotate the furlling drum a little bit. The rotation of the drum edge will then saw through the line in a few hours' time.

Since understanding this I have rotated the stainless steel line guide 90 degrees. This line guide was mounted incorrectly by a local shipyard, as you can see in the picture. So now this problem is halved: it will only occur when the line on the furler exits on the lower end of the furler.
Now I always remind myself to check whether the furling line touches the lower edge of the furling drum, after reefing the jib. It is easy to manually pull the reefing line higher.

The other pictures show me changing the furling line during heavy weather, with the jib unrolled completely due to the furling line breaking. We really needed the reef. I got wet. And yes, I used a lineline.

I explained this failure mechanism to a Z-Spars representative on the Grand Pavois boat show in La Rochelle. He seemed not very interested.
Other furler manufacturers use rounded edges on their furlers.
I explained this to a Leopard representative on the same boat show, they also use Z-Spars furlers. He was very interested. He knew it happens a lot that the furling line breaks in their charter/rental business, but they did not understand why.

[careka]

Nice tips Jef, i will check my boat also. and se what it looks like.
maybe it is possible to just round the end our selfs. or bend the outer part a bit down ?

[Toys_with_time]

Originally Posted by Jef & Marin, Netherlands

Lori,
Also I made a system to furl and bind the stack pack on both sides of the boom. This prevents wear from flapping. But can only be used when not reefed, alas.

Any chance of a sketch / more details?

TwT

[Serendipity129]

Hi guys, would anyone care to share their set up for a boom preventer.

Appreciate any advise.

I have a temporary trial rig involving a small sized mooring rubber shock and a length of 8mm fixed to the boom and at the midships mooring cleat. Angles appear to work well and the mooring rubber takes the edge off the tension flexing when running in larger seas.


cheers

scott

[Serendipity129]

Hi guys, FYI. I have fitted a small s/s anchor swivel into the bitter end of my main sheet.

I installed in an attemp to remove the increasing tendency I have recently noted for the main sheet to twist at the bitter end. It got to the stage that I would undo bowline at untwist the last 8 or so meters and within 50 Nmiles the twist would be back.

Not only was the main sheet twisting it was transferring the rope twist into twisting the the top rear most block, wrapping the sheet around itself and increasing friction and wear, not ideal.

Installed swivel 2 weeks or 1500Nm ago and working beautifully so far.


cheers

scott

[Cotemar]

Scott,
Your Boom Preventer is exactly what I use. Works great.
Mark