Kaimusailing

Capn Ed came down to the dock. He'd been away for a few weeks, maybe the impending mast project kept him away. He produced an extra beer for me, so I made an effort and explained how the project was going. The mast was up, with winches, with goose neck for the boom, only the headstay and roller furler remained. The bridle had to be reinstalled on the bow crosstube and then we could measure the headstay length needed, check the remains of the roller furler, and decide a course of action to either re-install the furler after repair or go to an endless furler and gennaker.
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The bridle installation was reverse of disassembly except the last ½ inch nyloc nut galled on the rod of the bridle. It had to be cut off with the die grinder and the rod rethreaded. The genoa halyard was used to pull the bridle up at the correct angle. Tapping with a hammer made sure there were no gaps left. The new spinnaker halyard was used to pull the long tape measure up to the top of the mast. It was lined up with the pin in the bail that secures the top of the roller furler. The measurement at the eye of the bridle fitting was 47 feet 2 inches.
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The roller furler was now measured and it looked like the 47-2 measurement came out almost exactly to the toggle pin at the top of the roller furler. That left just the toggle itself as additional length. This means that cutting off the toggle fitting and replacing it with a swageless toggle fitting would result in a shorter roller furler and we have to add something somewhere to make up the difference. There is some adjustment in the roller furler itself, because it has a built in turnbuckle at the base. I ordered the swageless eye fitting from Defender Marine along with a couple of extra long D shackles. I could extend the upper shrouds by using the D shackles instead of the shorter bow shackles now in use, as well as having a greater breaking strength.
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Now it was Sailstice Saturday and we're not taking the boat out. She could be sailed without the genoa and the main and boom are ready to attach to the goose neck, but I'd rather take care of all the broken and unfinished items, then do an overall shakedown. Won't be too long now.
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The remaining top foil of the roller furler had some damage, so it was lopped off with the angle grinder with a cut off wheel, taking care to not nick the headstay inside the foil. Meanwhile at the foot of the roller furler more disassembly was done and now the threaded stud of the headstay is visible and the stay can be backed out of the furler. This is necessary because the foils run up to the very end of the head of the stay and overlap the eye fitting. It would be impossible to assemble a swageless eye fitting without drawing down the foils from it a few inches and that is impossible without pulling the stay out of the base of the furler to allow more room. A piece of nylon rod was ordered online as stock to make bearings where needed in the furler repair. This furler uses nylon slugs that fit inside the joints between the foils, actually inside the tubing used as connectors between the foils. The tubing is blind riveted to the foils, one rivet at the end of each foil, and the protruding ends of the rivets are recessed in the nylon slugs, so they hold the slugs in place. The slugs are of course slotted for the headstay. The slot is at the rear of the slug so that under sail pressure, the foil will press the front of the slug against the stay and serve as a bearing.
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One problem with this roller furling system is that the connectors, which are aluminum tubing as manufactured, can suffer from metal fatigue and crack, then break completely. The foils then can rotate independently, so trying to roll up the sail results in part of it not rolling along with the other foils. This can jam the whole works up and then the sail can't be lowered out of the roller furler because the sail slots in the foils are not in line. Yes, we suffered such a failure, but the sail quickly became tatters in the storm conditions when it happened. The connectors were replaced with heavy stainless pipe and haven't had that problem again.
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There has been a lot of interest in the Pacific Northwest recently. The US Open golf championship is finishing up this weekend with a backdrop of Puget Sound. Just north of there was a race to Ketchikan, Alaska and is now winding down with many boats dropping out, including a couple of small Wharram catamarans. The difference between the two events is that the purse for the golfers is 9 million dollars and the purse for the sailors is 10 thousand dollars. Another event worth searching is Leu Cat on this sailblogs site. Dave and Mary Margaret Leu are traveling down the Pacific coast, posting many beautiful pictures on their blog, on their way to South Africa to resume their round the world cruise on their catamaran, Leu Cat. Dave Leu sails AND golfs.
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Here is a Race to Alaska update that is the definition of "dude":
http://r2ak.com/daily-updates-2/june-21/
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The roller furler was attacked again and I had to dig through ancient papers to find the "Streamstay II" manual. This is not available online as far as I can tell, so I will probably scan it or photograph it and put up a link on Flikr. The problem was that I couldn't find the set screw that secures the headstay stud in the furler body. The manual tells all. There can be one, two, or no set screws, possibly under a slot or hole in the barrel that surrounds the furler body. This model has a set screw but no access to it, so that the furler has to be disassembled from below, another set screw, a thread on collar. The barrel has to be removed, then the final set screw that prevents the stud from unscrewing can be removed. The set screw is rusty and has to be replaced.
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When the barrel of the roller furler was removed, a shower of ball bearings cascaded out, and about half took a swim in the Bodkin. The ball bearing races are held in place by split rings in grooves in the furler body. If the rings slip out of the groove, the bearing races can separate and allow the ball bearings to escape. When the furler is completely assembled the races can't separate even if the rings slip, but during disassembly they do come apart and the balls fall out.
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Some research on replacement ball bearings resulted in an order from West Marine of .250" torlon balls as used in Harken furlers. The Streamstay used alternating stainless and delrin balls. The stainless was for strength and the delrin to keep the stainless balls from abrading each other, like a lubricant. The torlon balls are strong enough to take the place of the stainless balls and prevent abrasion of the bearing races as well.
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The picture is a painting called "Gem Balls" by Gloria Green available for purchase at saatchiart.com.