how to replace the in mast furling rope.

[Romerico Carbonell]

Hello, I need to replace the in mast furling rope of my Oc 351, it has
a Z spar in mast furling system, has anyone had the experience of
changing the ropes on this type of furling system?, was looking for
some materials on line, found one but I couldn't figure out how
without some illustrations. Any help is highly appreciated. Thanks a
lot.

Rommi

[Dan Barac]

Rommi,

My posting from some time ago, it may apply to your mast:

--------------------
My drum can not be tilted out of the mast, possibly because it is an older
model (ZSpar Z900 mast, 1994). For everyone with a furling mast like mine,
this is how you replace the furling line:

1. Remove covers from all service ports on the mast.

2. Unfurl the sail. Note how many rope turns are there on the drum - it
should be wound up almost to the top of the drum. Even better, make a mark
on the mast where the furling line goes through the slot.

3. Release the mainsail halyard tension, undo the tack shackle. Drop the
sail on deck. Undo the head shackle and remove the sail from the mast.

4. Pull the furling line out of the mast - the drum and the extrusion will
obviously turn with it. You will notice the end of the old line disappearing
through the bottom of the drum.

5. Accessing through the lowest service port, find the knot at the bottom of
the drum. Pull the knot and a bit of line out though the service port.

6. Undo the knot and saw the new line to the old line end to end. Pull the
new line in using the old all the way through. Tie a knot at the end of the
new line and pull the new line out of the mast slot firmly as far as it
goes, so the tension rests on the knot.

7. Temporarily reinstall the bolt of the tack shackle through the hole in
the extrusion, so that turning of the extrusion turns the drum as well
(otherwise the extrusion may rotate without the drum). Accessing through the
upper service ports, rotate the extrusion (and the drum) clockwise while
carefully feeding the new line through the mast slot and watching it wind up
the drum. Stop when it reaches the mark on the mast. Remove the tack shackle
bolt.

8. Pull the old line from the cockpit and with it feed the new line all the
way back into the cockpit.

9. Reinstall the head shackle and feed the sail up the extrusion. Reinstall
the tack shackle. Tighten the luff as required. Furl the sail in.

10. Replace service port covers making sure you use Duralac or some other
anti corrosive compound on the s/s bolts.

Note on the line diameter: I started with a 10 mm (3/8") Spectra line, but
noticed significant friction in step 7. as I was trying to rotate the drum -
the line was too thick and was chafing on something inside the mast, on one
side of the drum. I pulled it out and replaced with an 8 mm (5/16") Spectra
line - this time the line was winding up smoothly without any resistance.
This is a confirmation that people having problems operating their in-mast
furling main should check on the furling line. Too thick and you WILL have
significant resistance furling / unfurling of the sail. Obviously this chafe
will do nothing for the longevity of the line either. I'm certain that the
strength of a smaller diameter line will be more than sufficient for this
application if you use a more expensive material like Spectra.

--------------------

Best regards,
Dan

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[Captain Guy]

BTW;

About the friction:

there is a shield that is pop-rivited to the back of the screw housing to
keep the wraps in the screw. This is where the friction is. If the line is
too large, it will cause increased friction with each turn. Some have been
known to pop loose and then the line will jump a screw and you have a big
mess.

guy

[Romerico Carbonell]

Hi Dan, thanks a lot, this will surely help.

Sent from my iPod

[Romerico Carbonell]

Capt. Guy,
Upon close inspection of the screw I noticed that there is a small indention, an indication that the rope must have jumped at one point in the past. Must have been caused by furling with no tension at all from the in furling line?

Sent from my iPod

[Captain Guy]

Possible... also the entry angle is too great; I added a 12" wire pennant to
the end of the block at the mast to reduce the angle of the line, haven't
had a jump since.

BTW, the shield was screwed in, not rivited as I said earlier (early recall
was wrong).

Capt Guy

[Bill Jarvis]

Guy,

I have made that modification on several different B's and other brands and
it has always made a huge improvement.

Bill

[Romerico Carbonell]

That's a good advise Capt. Guy, will definitely do this mod. thnx,

Rommi

[Jeff Pernick]

I understand that the line angle is too steep, I can't get where you would add a pendant to adjust. I had a block lashed to the the vang tube which worked to improve the angle but i didn't like the side load on the tube. Can you provide any details?

Jeff

[Bill Jarvis]

Jeff,

Take the block off the boom and add a wire (or spectra) strop about 122long
between the boom and the block.

[Captain Guy]

will post a pix later.

guy

[Jeff Pernick]

I see it now. The strop allows the block to always be able to split the difference between the roller and the mast step. Very clever.

Jeff

[Bill Jarvis]

That should have read 12" long.

[Captain Guy]

for pix go to

http://www.guym.com/furling-pennant.JPG

Note I have an unused hanger that acts as a stop... I've had the pop-rivets
shear during bad gybes, so this shares the load. No problems since last one
in 2001