Roller Furler Luff Lenth

[Greg]

I have read the postings on rigging but have not seen this directly addressed. I recently bought a 2002 X that has a CDI roller furler with Genoa that was installed by the previous owner. I bought the speedy rigger video, but it does not address roller furlers. I set the rig up in my driveway this week for the first time and the settings are: Shorouds are set to the third hole, aft stay set to the second hole. The shrouds are all sloppy, the aft stay is loose and the roller furler is not real taunt. The mast had a lot of rake( I did not measure the inches from vertical, I will do that next ). My question is, is there an exact length (eye to eye) for the roller furler in order to set the rake for the mast at 2 degrees? It seems if I have the correct furler length, then set the proper tension on the shrouds using the Loos guage, then set the backstay as needed, that would do the trick. Being a new owner, I am somewhat overwhelmed with the number of things that need to be done before using and overniting on the boat. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

[Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL]

I would check to make sure the gray plastic luff extrusion is cut to the correct length (26X - 26' / 26M - 25'-8"). The luff extrusion comes from the CDI factory longer than that, so that it will fit a range of boats.
If it was installed by a previous owner, he may not have cut it to the correct length.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

I find to get the weather helm under control the turnbuckle under the drum needs to be almost screwed up tight. I have about 1" of space between the ends of the threaded rods and the boat now behaves nicely. Lift your drum and check your's. It sounds so loose that you may be almost fully unwound. (Don't forget to check your cotter pins under the drum regularly, they are all that stand between you and a crashed rig.) If your's is the original factory headstay you will find the best setting is almost as tight as it can go. Many have even had their headstay shortened. The factory rake recommendation is just plain wrong, way to high. The furler foil just floats on the headstay so as long as it's length doesn't limit the tightening you are fine.

Here's the short list on tuning the rig. Start with all the stays loose.

1. - Set the rake by adjusting the forestay. To do this you pull the upper pin on the drum and slide it up over the foil. (Note that there is not a hole for the pin in the foil, it just sits on the pin.)

2. - Adjust the upper shrouds to preset the static mast bend and get equal lengths side to side. (Note: counting holes is not the way to do this. The cable lengths are not always identical on each side. You should measure or use a level.)

3. - Adjust the lower shrouds to lock in the mast bend and balance the tension.

4. - If you don't have an adjustable back stay mod, set the backstay to a reasonable tension, but not too tight or you will find it hard to pin the headstay when you raise and lower the mast.

For more info check out the Rigging Primer in the Featured articles section on the left.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

I have to leave my backstay in the last hole (stock 2000X rigging) in order to have the forestay tightened up all the way. I still have a few degrees of rake even with the forestay turnbuckle tightened to its limits. I recently loosened my lower shrouds because they were bending the mast too much. I'm tempted to shorten my forestay at which time, I may as well up the size to 5/32 and put in the adjustable backstay mod.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Dimitri,

The uppers, putting pressure on the end of the swept back spreaders is what push forward on the mast and induce static bend. The lowers simply stop the forward movement of the mast at the spreaders keeping whatever bend is there from increasing. They eliminate any pumping of the mast further forward and they oppose the tension of the uppers. If they are too tight you can however put a 'S' bend in the mast.

I found on my boat when I closed up the headstay turnbuckle I was quite a bit past where the backstay adjuster would reach. At first I added a 3" tang to the bottom of the backstay adjuster as a simple fix to allow the mast to go forward, but I have since dumped the adjuster completely in favor of a small jam cleat block and tackle giving me an adjustable backstay.

Perhaps this is just another example of the variability in the manufactured MacGregor parts and my headstay was one of the shortest ones they made.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Duane, I'm not sure I quite follow you. Just looking at the rig, you would think that the only thing which could bend the mast forward is the forestay since all other stay attachment points are behind the mast. The main reason I loosened the lowers was due to a sideways bend in the mast. After I got the bend out by loosening the lowers, I noticed that the whole mast was not bent backwards quite as much anymore so I decided to only tighten them up to a lesser degree than they were before. (No, I don't have the gauge or adjustment tool but plan to buy them someday) I left the uppers at the same tension as they were which was somewhat tight, not supertight though. Previously, my lowers were at least as tight as the uppers...and from everything I have read, they should be a bit looser.

Unfortunately, I have not had much opportunity to test the new rig tensions out as this yucky Florida summer weather is not cooperating much. The one day a week that there is possibly any decent wind, I'm guaranteed to be sitting at work watching it out a window. Oh well, guess I shouldn't complain much since we have nice fall, winter, and spring weather for sailing.

Perhaps the earlier models could have had a shorter backstay too. The problem with being in or near the last hole on those vernier adjusters is that there is no fine adjustment after that. You need to be down a few holes for that. So, I will likely use your mod one of these days...although I'm still debating whether its worth putting in a new tang and the split backstay mod instead.

[Greg]

The overall length of the furler -eye to eye- is 27 feet 3 inches. Is that in the ballpark or does it need to be shorter?

[ESPERANZA]

You might want to check out this link.. I used it and things seem much better now...

http://www.nisa.net/~harbro/tuning.htm

Dik...