baveria 38 Furling mainsail jamming

[stevem]

I have recently bought a Bav 38 (2003). I am having trouble with the furling mainsail jamming, the sail seems to foldback on itself somehow when furling. There does not seem to be any problem with the furling mechanism itself. A couple of weeks ago I came onto the wind ,which was getting up to gale force and so the main was very quickly furled which would account for the first jamming, A few days latter when trying to unfurl the sail I found that it had jammedand it tookseven and a half hours to sort it including some one up the mast. Luckily it was a calm day and I had a Friend to help but I had the sail half in and half out. If I had been at sea and there was any wind I would have had serious problems!
I have tried releasing the kicker tension, but no success. I had a retro fit furling main on my last boat which never gave this problem. I am sure that it is me not doing something correctly. I wonder if the tension on the backstay could be the cause.
Has anyone else had this problem?

[KAOS]

1. Did you reef without selecting the nipple to "Winch" on the mast winch? If you reef or close the mainsail with the "winch" on free the is a great possibility the mainsail goes in the wrong way round.

2. Check the mast top swivel for damage and lubrication.

3. The mechanical gears insde the mast at the bottom should be greased. Check the selden manual.

[stevem]

Thanks for your reply Kaos,
I have had the winch on the "free " position every time . I thought the "ratchet" position was to lock the mechanism to stop the sail unwinding when moored up .
I will let you know if the problem is resolved next time I go to the boat .

Regards, Steve

[KAOS]

Steve every time you go out sailing once you roll out the mainsail, the utmost important first thing to so is to set nipple to winch because other wise you risk having to pull out the main sail only with a knife.

I sincerely hope it will not be the case.

Rds Andre

[Bob Baynton]

Geez ... hate to expose my ignorance, but I have never flipped the lever over to "winch" after hauling out the mainsail!  :-[The only problem I have had with the furling main is the furling line not free wheeling when hauling out the main and the line piles up at the foot of the mast, requiring one to occasionally pull in the furling line slack while pulling the outhaul. In my case, the furling line itself had "thickened up" over time and wouldn't free wheel when unfurling the main. It was remedied by replacing the furling line with the proper diameter line.
Bob

[njsail]

The only time I make the trip up to the mast before furling is when the wind is above 20kts.   I flip it to ratchet so when I'm furling the main sail in I don't have to worry about the pressure on the sail producing a significant load on the endless furling line.  If you are freewheeling without the ratchet it will only take one oops when you don't have constant pressure on the endless furling line to let the sail drum rotate freely under the substantial wind load.  nothing good can come of that scenario.  The sail flies out quickly and ends with a loud bang.  you hope nothing breaks.  When hurricane Earl came up the east coast of the US we went sailing in 40kt winds as it grazed the state just to get used to sailing in higher winds.   I also wanted to get experience with the furling main in higher winds.  We had a great day and the furling main worked like a charm.    That's my 2 cents for what it's worth.    Go sailing, have fun, repeat.

[Symphony]

Some other things to think about. The angle of the boom is important. Make sure it is set either by the topping lift or the vang so that you do not get any folds as you wind in. Do not attempt to bend the mast by cranking up the backstay. The mast should be absolutely straight. Check the tension on the mandrel inside the mast - the instructions are in the Selden manual which should have come with the boat, but you can download it from their website. Finally, if the sail is old and baggy (which it probably will be if it is the original) it is more prone to creasing as it rolls in. Possible to get it recut, but it might be an indicator of new sail time.

[njsail]

good catch Symphony - I forgot to add the boom angle to the mast is very important.  That was a problem I learned early on.    Once I got the angle right it became a pleasure to furl.  Would I get the same furler again if I had the chance?  Yes I would.   

[Salty]

I had an add on in mast furling system on a previous, non Bavaria boat, so this might not be relevant. On that boat the furling worked well until the end of the season when I removed the sail for the over winter period. In the spring I refitted the sail, but made the mistake of using a bowline to tie the top end of the sail to the halyard. This took up too much space such that while the halyard was tight, the knot having reached the sheave at the top of the mast, the front end of the sail itself was not tight. (can never remember what the different parts of the sail are called). The result was that the sail started to wrinkle when being furled and consequently it jammed. Once freed off I changed the bowline to a sheet bend which took up less space, and that made all the difference to the tension on that end of the sail. Hope you get the problem sorted!!

[stardust]

When occasionally the mainsail has jammed when unfurling I tighten the sail using a winch handle at the mast this allows the sail to unfurl easily.Its probaly caused by not tailing the outhaul correctly when reefing and applying slight pressure" Stardust"

[Trundletruc]

We had problems furling the main when we first had our boat.
Because I did not want the boom to catch the top of the bimini cover and rip it, I put a knot in the topping lift so that the boom could not come any lower. This still meant that when sailing there was sufficient slack in it.
By accident we furled the mainsail without pulling on the topping lift to take the weight of the boom. We had released the main and the kicker. With the boom at it's lowest the mainsail furled without trouble!
My theory is that you must have the boom as low as possible to even out the tension on the foot and leach so the sail goes into the mast evenly.
I never use the ratchet on the furler unless it is very windy. Prefer to make sure I pull the reefing line quickly and constantly rather than climbing up to the mast.