We have difficulties with unfurling the main on our 2011 C375. The sail sticks at or around the top vertical batten and the wrap on the furler becomes uneven.
We have read and tried various suggestions (below), still an intermittent problem:
- when furling, make sure topping lift is tight by tightening mainsheet and vang
- when furling, have wind slightly on starboard
- tighten halyard
- slacken halyard
The inability to reduce sail easily is a real concern and we are not going out without additional crew to cope with the problem.
Any suggestions based on experience would be appreciated.
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Keith Wheeles
C375 No Reservations
Herrington Harbour South, MD
KandJ,
Have you checked to make sure your upper batten is parallel to the mast when it furls? If not, I would immagine it would cause problems. I've only had problems furling/unfurling the main twice, and they were both caused by me. I have a Charleston Spar, but I assume they are similar??? I run into problems when either the mainsheet or the vang are tight. I leave them loose so the boom and sail can find the right vertical balance, and the sail furls evenly. I do not use a topping lift. I don't like the extra chafe on the sail. When furling, I let the spring in the vang find its own level. Perhaps your topping lift if too short/tight? The other problem I caused was to furl the main with no tension on the outhaul. This caused the sail to furl loosely, and was a real pain to get out. I had to apply lots of tension on both the inhaul and outhaul, and work it back and forth. Now that I am older and a tiny bit smarter, I keep tension on the outhaul (a few wraps on the cabintop winch), and the main furls tightly, making it easy to unfurl the next time. Hope this helps.
PS-It would help a lot if you could create/update your "signature" by clicking on the UserCP link at the top of the page.
Tom Sokoloski
C36/375IA Past Commodore
Noank, CT
Tom -
I updated my signature - thanks for pointing that out.
We have made sure we have some tension on the outhaul.
We have tried to be conscious of getting the top batten parallel when furling. Good question about the topping lift being too tight, I will look into that. I know that unless we do loosen the topping lift, we have to have the mainsheet and vang pulling to offset it or the first batten goes in with the top tilted slightly towards the mast.
We are considering pulling out the first batten altogether, I'm not sure how much good it is doing.
Keith Wheeles
C375 No Reservations
Herrington Harbour South, MD