In mast reefing: Luff being pulled out of furler

[mikedefieslife]

I have an in-mast (behind mast) reefing system by Easyreef. What a total piece of crap that is. No wonder the company long since went bust.

I'm a fan of more modern in-mast reefing, but this is from antiquity. I would love to remove it, but it would be big costly job involving drilling out over 70 rivets and re-fabricating/reattaching the fittings for the boom gooseneck.

I may still do it, this winter, but the problem I need to sort at the moment is that the luff keeps pulling itself out of the furler, which then leave me with a free flying sail that I can't furl back in without first dropping the halyard and re-threading the luff into the furler whilst simultaneously slowly raising the halyard, all single-handed.

Any suggestions?

[Captsteve53]

Can you get away with a marinally bigger bolt rope ? Probably easier than tackling your seventy rivets !

[mikedefieslife]

Probably but that means sending it off to sailmaker, easily done in winter, however I'm currently cruising foreign lands.

The problem seems to be the gap in the furler at the bottom where you thread the luff in. It's a good 3-4" this is where the bolt-rope starts to come out and heads upwards.

p.s - Yeah, if you do a search for Easyreef, you will not find a good word about them.

Maybe I could try adding tap over the bolt rope around that area.

[Captsteve53]

Have you thought of or perhaps you have already but if not one of those really strong chromed bronze heavy duty pre feeders that you commonly see on race boats when using a tuff luff (as they plastic and suffer the same issue if not used) Find some way to attach in line with the foil section or even slightly in board to ward the mast so it takes the stress,

Never seen one of those pull out ever in many thousands of race miles- including a rather bad Sidney Hobart

Cheers Steve

[Captsteve53]

There are also really good SS ones, on the tuff luff set up we normally just tie them on with small diameter marine twine,

[JD-Odyssey]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Maybe I could try adding tap over the bolt rope around that area.

I think that sounds like a good option to try first
JD

[Utahsailor]

Try squeezing in the luff track where the sail feeds in for a quick and dirty fix. If you halve the opening for a couple of inches, the sail should stay in.

[singlespeed]

You might try more halyard tension. If unable to furl, due to tension, open sail, immediately tension halyard and sail. Prior to furling, reduce halyard tension and furl.

[SaltyMetals]

I had in-mast furling on a Beneteau Oceanis 400 and used to have same problem where the luff would start pulling out at the foot. Fixed it by adding some stitches through the sail and around the furling foil. If you ever need to drop the sail you just cut the stitching first.
Andrew
"Genial Bee"

[B00B00]

It could be that the sail offsets at the tack and head might be wrong and the boltrope is seeing all the load rather than the head and tack attachments. This would cause problems for any boltrope setup. You could try lashing these forward a bit to take the load off the boltrope or handsew a webbing atv
the feeder to lash it forward there. I would be hessitant to use a pre feeder for a furling sail, Good when hoisting but if you furl the sail tight around the prefeeder it will likely tear the sail or damage your furler extrusion.