Furling line routing, lashing rings

[Ryban]

I'm installing a furler and would like to route the line low and on the OUTSIDE of the stations, if at all possible.

I have seen hardware sold for this purpose, but I am both blessed and cursed with the beefiest stantions I've ever seen on a small cruising sailboat. They're 42.5mm diameter and solid as a rock. I have not seen standard furling hardware sold for such sizes.

My thought was to lash low friction rings tightly to the outside of the stantions (e.g. like the photo attached, but better), but they'll need to be lashed snugly enough that the whole lashing will not rotate around the stantion nor will the low friction rings rotate relative to the stantion, which may be difficult.

If all else fails, I'll route the line on the inside and live with it.

[ggray]

Looks fine to me, especially where the furling line won't be deflected much.

At either end, where there may be significant deflection, blocks or rings could be on the inside

[wholybee]

I wouldn't want something like that for a permanent installation. If it works loose, you could have a real problem trying to furl your sail.

You have such great stanchions, I would want equally great blocks for the furling line. Garhauer could probably customize something for you.

[Ryban]

I'm starting to agree. After playing with some more lashings I think it's going to be a struggle to make it sufficiently tight that it doesn't slip at all.

I might try to fabricate a custom bit of hardware that will accomplish the task, but I'll need to give it some thought.

[s/v Jedi]

What?! Lashing lfr’s to stanchions is the best thing ever! But you need to use larger rings and use a small Dyneema lashing that runs through the ring, not around it.

The ring will lock to the round stanchion, keeping it aligned at all times.

Much, much superior to blocks!

The attached picture isn’t great as I zoomed in a general picture of Jedi but I think you can see how the ring performs. I use New England Ropes Spyderline for the lashing, which is a Dyneema core with polyester cover so that it doesn’t slip.

You can’t move that ring at all.

[stormalong]

Look at these:

https://www.schaefermarine.com/our-p...urling-blocks/

Ben using them for about 30 years.

[jtsailjt]

Originally Posted by stormalong

Look at these:

https://www.schaefermarine.com/our-p...urling-blocks/

Ben using them for about 30 years.

I have 4 of those each for both my jib and staysail. They work great but I think when I bought the most recent ones they were over $100 each for the larger sized ones you’d need so well over $1000 total “invested” for me. If I’d seen Jedi’s solution first I think I’d have gone in that direction instead and saved a lot of $$.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

I have 4 of those each for both my jib and staysail. They work great but I think when I bought the most recent ones they were over $100 each for the larger sized ones you’d need so well over $1000 total “invested” for me. If I’d seen Jedi’s solution first I think I’d have gone in that direction instead and saved a lot of $$.

With the ample supply of high tech products like Dyneema, low friction rings etc., you can eliminate almost all steel hardware aboard.

[Ryban]

Yeah I agree Jedi that a lashing in dyneema can be rock solid. Unfortunately I can't lash through the ring, as I want to run it on the outside of the stantion, and this would put the furling line in direct contact with the lashing line. The rings I have are 5/16", so oversized for my 1/4" furling line. I think it can be done with a lashing still, but I'll need to practice my knots and maybe use a winch to get the tension in super tight.

The Schaefer blocks are not designed to fit around 42.5mm stantions because probably no one else on the planet has such massive stantions.

I was out on the boat this morning and temporarily rigged up the rings with a pair of hose clamps. I think it would be straightforward to fabricate something that clamps around the stantion and the low friction ring, I just need to decide if it's worth the effort.

[ggray]

Actually, you probably don't need a ring.

Lash an eyestrap to the ouside of the stanchion, and let the stanchion be the bearing surface.

https://www.westmarine.com/harken-38...r-6576581.html

Polish stanchion if necessary, and you might need to use your Dremel to make sure there are no sharp edges on the eyestrap. But that wouldn't capsize.

[Scorpius]

Get a welder to weld ss chain half links to the outside of your stantions and leave it at that. You probably only need to put two or three on for guidance and let the line run on the stantions themselves.

[s/v Jedi]

I see… the solutions with more metal and even welding would work well enough but I would give the LFR with Dyneema lashing another try.

How about you tie a bowling around the ring, set it in place, go around the stanchion back to the top of the ring, then turn downwards to pull that loop really tight, then continue with a wrap around the ring from below to top.

Then repeat it but come around to the bottom of the ring and turn up inside of down, pull tight and go around the ring the other direction, keeping it balanced.

It may be good with those two wraps, but you need to find how to lock it.

For using the stanchion itself as the surface you could just use a small piece of Dyneema to tie an eye strap. I would try all that and do what works good at least cost

[The Yacht Rigger]

I came here to say what GGray said. Why not drill and tap an eye strap to the outside of the stanchion? Super solid and long term solution.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by The Yacht Rigger

I came here to say what GGray said. Why not drill and tap an eye strap to the outside of the stanchion? Super solid and long term solution.

Metal, with metal fastener requiring drilling which invites more corrosion. Sharp, catching things, requiring polishing etc.

[The Yacht Rigger]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Metal, with metal fastener requiring drilling which invites more corrosion. Sharp, catching things, requiring polishing etc.

Agreed, but the lashing line on the stainless will also cause corrosion - just the lack of oxygen, combined with salt residue.
Drilling and tapping SS is tough, no doubt, but once done, if you use high quality fasteners and put some tefgel on the threads, corrosion will be almost zero, and it will last 20 years.