Jib Halyard Block Interference w Furler?

[vizwhiz]

Hello everyone. Have been trying to iron out little bugs in my rigging. One of them is the factory jib halyard block. It seems that it wasn't intended originally to go with the large black turning end on the top of the luff extrusion for the CDI roller furler. As I try to furl/unfurl the jib, the flat sides of that black hit the block as it goes around - bang bang bang. I was just wondering if anyone else experienced this, and if you did anything about it? I am a little concerned about lowering the block too far just to try to clear it.

Thanks!

[Retcoastie]

Had the same issue. I only use that block to raise and lower the sail cover and with the mast raising system. It was probably originally designed for use with hank-on sails. To relieve the problem and make the cover fit better I added an additional attachment ring (brain fart just now, can't think of the name) about 10 inches higher up the mast. No more issues.

Ken

[Tomfoolery]

You can add another hound higher up. Mine is about 18" up from the forestay hound, and is used for the spinnaker and the mast raising system (MRS). I keep it tied off to the bow rail when not in use, snugged a fair bit to prevent sag, which would get caught in the furler.

You could also extend the block attachment so it's lower.

And you could always just attach the line to the hound without the block, if all you use it for raising the mast. That will also reduce the load on the hound and the little cross bolt when it's supporting the mast. Tie the line off at the base somewhere, out of the way.

In the first photo, I hadn't yet removed the jib halyard and block, and was still using it for raising the mast. I don't use it now, and got rid of all of it. The forestay was removed and the whole jib/furler/forestay slid back for transport, but it obviously attaches at the lower (near, in the pic) hound.



Ignore the wrinkly main sail below - that pic was taken specifically to talk about relaxing the bolt rope, which is causing the wrinkling. It lays nice and tight and flat now.



See?

[Tomfoolery]

And as an aside, what's going on with all the lines from the top of your mast toward the stern? One would be the topping lift, assuming you use one, but is the other the main halyard? And twin backstays? Looks pretty busy back there.

[Azzarac]

When I had to replace the luff of my CDI furler a couple years ago, I noticed the original was about 5 1/4" shorter than what Mac specs called for. Apparently sometime in Chameleon's past it was altered, possibly to mitigate this very problem. After triple checking the measurements and a lot of apprehension, I cut the new luff to the same length. I've never had an issue since replacing the old one.

[Tomfoolery]

Since mast rake changes will change the amount of forestay reveal, it's also possible the mast is raked far aft. Turnbuckle all the way out, and shrouds closed down at the adjusters.

Just one more thing to look into, and mast tuning is always a good thing to recheck every so often.

[vizwhiz]

Thanks! Nice to know i'm not the only guy with this issue.

The busy backstay is actually not really... Backstay is still the cable at the end of the chickenhead which you can see, and i added a small block on the outside with a flag halyard looped, so two very small lines for that. Topping lift going to the boom is visible, as you noted, and main halyard is running up/down along the mast, so two lines for that. Topping lift runs down the opposite side of the mast, so the tag line for that is not really visible in this pic.

So I didn't really want to get rid of the halyard, so for now I'll probably just drop it a little lower and we'll see how it goes. Thanks again!

Also, i'm at probably 3/4+ tight on the forestay turnbuckle, so probably not a mast rake issue. Then again, i added the Johnson lever and everything is "new" dimensions.