MacGregorSailors.com

for Mrs. skipper...she was wondering about the difficulty of attaching the furler drum after raising/ lowering the mast...
Here's a pic...



what does not show here is a shackle connection between the turnbuckle [ showing] and the mast support bolt right behind, aft of, the bow nav light...This prevents the outside chrome body of the drum from turning and so maintaining the rope entrance slot always facing the stern...It also prevent the internal turnbuckle from turning and undoing in case the wire ties ever let go...
To connect to the showing turnbuckle, i used a strong split pin through the adjusting body of the T/B with the two halves curled away from each other so it could not pull out again...then i attached small shackles to the 'eye' of the split pin. And from there to the bolt.
I have converted all Roger's ' nuts and bolts" systems to quick release. The mast / tabernacle bolt, the bottom bolt of the mast raising pole, and the bolt behind the bow nav light...makes for much easier rigging and no need to carry two spanners... WHAT ABOUT IT ROGER....[ I wonder if Roger actually reads this???] you would save on SS nylock nuts...
Puggsy.

Thanks so much for posting this! I had actually been researching these mods previously as it nearly kills us each time we have to connect that *#@^% CDI furler! Mr. Skipper says he won't have the strength next year!

Since it involves drilling a new hole in the mast, we'll wait for the winter. And we'll have to live without the wind vane that the big bird broke last weekend! I'm one of those hopeless people who can't tell which way the wind is blowing!

Mrs_Skipper wrote:Thanks so much for posting this! I had actually been researching these mods previously as it nearly kills us each time we have to connect that *#@^% CDI furler! Mr. Skipper says he won't have the strength next year!

Since it involves drilling a new hole in the mast, we'll wait for the winter. And we'll have to live without the wind vane that the big bird broke last weekend! I'm one of those hopeless people who can't tell which way the wind is blowing!

With The M and its rotating mast Your wind indicator read a false reading anyway........ try windtells tell tales or others from WM

Mrs, here is an easy, cheap trick for attaching furler drum http://www.macgregorsailboats.com/macgr ... -tips.html from Mike's page. I was going to post it for the OB motor info for those still looking for motors but thought better of it - didn't want to start another argument OOPS, the link doesn't work, what did I do wrong now? OK, I just found out you can't use color to highlight a link, it will highlight itself. I'll have to remember that.

Good suggestion SkiDeep! Mr. Skipper says that sounds a lot easier than him hanging and bouncing on the furler!

the tip from skideep is good...as long as you are the hard...but most times it is necessary to raise the mast after passing under a bridge and there may not be any dock or mooring buoy on the other side...like going out of Fremantle harbour...Three bridges, the middle one being the lowest, turn of the century vintage jarrah timber , that has been actually lowered due the the fitting of big steel beams UNDER the decking, to strengthen it. and the last bridge being rail only...Once you pass these three, you are into the port proper with about a mile to travel and then the open sea.
the point here is that you have to be able to re- connect that drum while under way...A bit of a tip is to overtighten the winch , which will give a bit more slack on the furler and make connecion a bit easier...It does tighten the shrouds up though...too tight to leave...so when you have connected and back off the winch, all tensions are correct.

Puggsy, we definitely want to do some kind of mod like you did for the reasons you note. Luckily we don't have to sail under anything on Lake Tahoe, so hopefully we can wait for the winter when the boat comes out of the water. Our current procedure is for me to tighten up the mast-raiser until I'm afraid the rope will break, then Mr. Skipper hangs on the jib grunting "NOW!" while I frantically try to jab in the pin. Usually it takes 2 or 3 tries while Mr. Skipper gets more and more red in the face and his "NOW's! become more frantic. Lots of fun!

Even though the Macs are fractional rigs, by loosening the back stay, it is then very easy to put the fore stay CDI or other pin in - try it you may like it - it works for me!

goddardw wrote:Even though the Macs are fractional rigs, by loosening the back stay, it is then very easy to put the fore stay CDI or other pin in - try it you may like it - it works for me!

The M has no backstay. Weird for me to get used to.

--Russ

Divecoz wrote:

Mrs_Skipper wrote:Thanks so much for posting this! I had actually been researching these mods previously as it nearly kills us each time we have to connect that *#@^% CDI furler! Mr. Skipper says he won't have the strength next year!

Since it involves drilling a new hole in the mast, we'll wait for the winter. And we'll have to live without the wind vane that the big bird broke last weekend! I'm one of those hopeless people who can't tell which way the wind is blowing!

With The M and its rotating mast Your wind indicator read a false reading anyway........ try windtells tell tales or others from WM

My M's rotating mast doesn't rotate very well (unless I get up there and force it). Next year I'm adding thrust ball bearings to the base.

If you look at the vane, it will point windward, but you have to ignore the arm for as you pointed out, it's not in-line with the boat.

I have made a telescopic mastfoot of some pieces of stainless steel plate , a guiding tube and a big skreew vho have a nut with arms - use a 2 inch skreew with square treads and weld short arms on nut and use a alu or steel tube for adjusting mast in seconds . Every sailboat should have my system ....

Welcome arvid,

We might need a better description of your system and/or some pictures. Is it like a level-wind fishing reel?

~Rich

On Edit: I think that arvid's mod is for the rotating mast. ~Rich

Just an additional note on furler operation: I have found that the turning block on the bow pulpit, on several boats that I have chartered, needed relocating to feed the furler line at the proper angle to the furler drum.

~Rich

On Edit: I placed this post in the wrong topic. Mods can delete if needed.

Puggsy's mod would help us in another way by raising the jib so it doesn't slop over the bow pulpit when deployed. I can't believe it's supposed to be like this, but the boat was rigged when we got it and perhaps the CDI furler wasn't correctly installed in the first place. Here's a picture of how the jib hits the bow pulpit while we're sailing...


Can anyone tell us if this is incorrectly installed?

Hamin' X wrote:Just an additional note on furler operation: I have found that the turning block on the bow pulpit, on several boats that I have chartered, needed relocating to feed the furler line at the proper angle to the furler drum.

~Rich

On Edit: I placed this post in the wrong topic. Mods can delete if needed.

I moved the furler line on my boat because it didn't feed well. I'll have to get a pic, but the original was too far forward and I just experimented and took out the eye closest to the furler and it works much better now.