Furling Main Maintenance
Earle Ellefsen

November, 2005 Hull #: 271

Our Commodore, Earle Ellefsen [C380 #271, Valkyrie], discovered chafe near one end of his mainsail furling line. He decided to turn the line end-for-end, and remove the chafed area as there was excess line length. The key step in accomplishing this was to remove the bolt, which locks-in the furling line, near the bottom of the furler. Of course, an “opportunity” soon arose when Earle realized that the bolt was Stainless Steel in an aluminum furler and, with a few years of salt-water environment, was thoroughly corroded in-place. Many shots of WD-40 later, nothing had changed! Early attempts at removal quickly resulted in losing the slot– or, as Earle put it: “it torqued open”. Obviously the bolt should have had a more substantial gripping head.

Once the slot was destroyed, heavy locking pliers are the obvious choice, right? Wrong– their