2:1 Main Halyard

[deardav1]

Hello, this is my first post in this forum.

I have a lot of trouble hoisting my roller furled Mainsail on my C-31 trimaran. The mainsail has full length battens, and a "square top" headboard. I replaced the block on the mast base with a Harken Ball-bearing model, but that didn't help much. I had the bolt rope cover changed by Calvert Sails to something slicker than the original UK cover. That was better but it still is tight and seems to want to bind up; especially when lowering it. If I spray it with lubricant like Sail-Lube, it works pretty well, but only for one or two hoists. I added a couple blocks to the Topping Lift, to make adjustments easier. I try to have the boom slightly raised above horizontal, like I did with my old F-27 (Hull #58), which seems to work the best. I have even placed a flat plastic "bushing" cut from a plastic ice cream lid, on the mast axle to stop any binding from the sail itself.
Since I sail solo most of the time, I don't have anyone to unroll the sail for me when hoisting.
Dave Calvert (Calvert Sails- Florida) said he hears about this a lot from other F-31/C-31 owners, and said that I could try a 2:1 halyard; or go to a slide system and abandon roller furling altogether. I really like the roller furling, I've always thought it was one of Corsair's best systems. I think I might try the 2:1 halyard, as my original halyard is chaffed at the splice by the original mainsail (cut too long). I assume that original halyard is one of the High-Tech Spectra, T-900, etc., lines?
Has anybody had good luck with a 2:1 main halyard system with a bolt-rope luff?
Sorry about the length of this post!

[Ian McColgin]

Since you have trouble both setting and striking the sail it seems that merely increasing the stress on the luff is not a very complete answer. You report that lubing helps in a temporary way. So, make it permanent as one boat I've seen did by making a lube wicking slug that rides above the boltrope. Just wet it with silicone every week or so and it'll lube the slot each up and down.

How much of an angle must the boltrope go through to get into the slot? This could be the problem. If the slot entry is well above the boom, maybe you can fabricate a hanging guide that gets the boltrope halfway from where it rolls off the boom to the slot entrance.

G'luck

[Brian Duff]

If the mainsail is a problem going up -and- down, which you state it is, be sure to check the masthead sheaves of the halyard (be sure the sheaves spin free, even under load), as well as the lead of the halyard inside the mast, and where the halyard exits the mast, and the movement through the rope clutch if fitted.

Also be sure the right bolt rope is on there, it may just be too big, even if it is new....wouldn't be the first time ! Another thing that seems to common on the roller furling booms that I work with , and I mean real common, is that the sail maker picks his luff tape with a sample down at the boat, or from manufacturers literature. Later when the sail is made this luff tape/boltrope is sewn onto the sail, but the batten patches make the luff thicker, and it gets stuck there, sometimes just tight, and people don't notice until something tears .... it happens.

On a boat as small as your I wouldn't think a 2:1 halyard would be worth while, especially since you sail alone (2:1 = twice as much line -and time- to pull to the thing up)

[deardav1]

Thank you for the replies.

Ian: I might try to rig up a Lube wicking slug on the aluminum headboard; that is a great idea! I've tried to fabricate an intermediate guide between the roller boom and the fixed guides on the mast slot, without much sucess.
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Brian: I think the bolt rope is OK, I had it changed out by Calvert Sails, which make a ton of racing sails for the Southeast area multihulls. I have run into that problem on a mainsail on my old F-27, so good suggestion. I learned that lesson the hard way! I will check out the masthead exit blocks, as those are really hard to keep lubricated.

Thank you again,
Dave