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Furler fail...


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Over the weekend I noticed a problem with our furler in that the track has parted from the top of the section that swings out to allow sail changes (see pic). It looks like a simple rivet failure and thus a simple fix. However a few questions: 

 

1) Is it a simple rivet job? If so are ordinary pop rivets suitable? I'm mostly thinking in terms of potential corrosion issues.

 

2) Why did it pull out like this? I noticed that once I eased halyard tension that it slid back into the correct position under gravity. So is there another issue? Is the luff of the sail too long and once I add halyard to tension the track comes under too much stress? The shackles connecting the head and tack are quite long and could be replaced with shorter ones giving a slightly shorter overall luff length from shackle end to shackle end if you see what I mean. Is that a good idea? 

 

Questions, questions... thoughts anyone? 

 

 

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I had a similar failure with our Harken furler but I discovered getting bits for old Harken furlers are finding like rocking horse sh*t and honest politicians...so I made an external sleeve to hold the whole thing in line, taped it generously and changed our headsails to soft hanks until such time as I can get the rig out and sort the issue properly. The soft hanks run up over the external sleeve OK.

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The cause is a SST rivet in Aluminium. It has corroded. It could be repaired and I suggest a monel or an Aluminium rivet instead. Simply drill out the corrosion and insert a larger rivet.

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You should be able to stand back and view whats happening up top. You need to see 3-4" (min) foil/track above the top of the sail and under thetop bearing. There may be a foot or two of track above-all good. If there is no clearance then yes, as you load the halyard it will be trying to pull the foils apart.

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Wheels, is that an ordinary rivet idea (need to get the length right) or would you be going for the rivet not going allthe way clear thru, and just to bind in the drilled hole. Drill too hard and you hit the forestay. A convential rivet head(well not the head but the other end) would get worn away by the forestay?

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The rivet does very little. It just stops the foil from sliding up the Forestay when raising the Sail. There is no real load on it as such. I would be simply drilling the miss shappen hole out to a size that you can get a rivet to fit. The rivet only need to just go through, or if the original did not, then do the same. On the inside of the foil will be plastic sleeves that act as bearings. They hold the foil away from the Forestay, so the foil does not actually sit hard against the forestay. This means there will be enough space for a rivet to just ever so slightly stick through. But ever so slightly. If the original does not go through at all, then you don't need the new one to ether. Smear plenty of Polyurathane adhesive sealant around the rivet, pull it home with the rivet gun and then wipe off any excess sealant. This will stop metal to metal contact and keep water out and you should get years of use from it again.

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Thanks for the help all.

 

I spoke to Kevin at Reef-rite and he was very helpful. Sent him the pics so he could see the problem and exactly which track it is and he's sending me some correct sized monel rivets. He also said to check the clearance up top once the sail is back on to make sure I'm not pulling the track apart with halyard tension. Fingers crossed should be a simple-ish fix, I hope.

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As I understand it , reefrite works the same as other furler manufacturers and  contracts out , or sometimes installs themselves because they're local. So any rigger could have installed  it and plucked the wrong rivets.

 I have one , had it serviced and a new forestay for offshore last year ,and I couldn't see any issues with corrosion at all.

 I think it went on the boat about 06.

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