Schaefer ST-2000 Furling

[sailjunkie]

Hello,

We recently purchased a Mirage 29' sailboat that came with a Schaefer St-2000 furling system, for the foresail. It takes a great deal of work to unfurl that sail, and we strongly suspect that mtce by the previous owner was minimal if at all.

Does anyone have any experience with unbolting the drum, to access the bearing? Specifically, would we have to also disconnect the forestay. The diagrams and documentation that I ordered from Schaefer any my own limited experience suggest "No", but it is not crystal clear.

I was just wondering if anyone here has had any experience with that?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Mark

[sailingdog]

I would highly recommend inspecting the entire setup... as the problem may also be that the PO had a halyard wrap and damaged the forestay and that is causing the issue. If that is the case, then you may be at risk of losing the mast. If you aren't comfortable doing this yourself, hire a rigger to come down and inspect the rig. Given how old the boat probably is, a complete rigging inspection is probably a wise idea in any case.

Just curious, did you have the boat surveyed before you bought it?

[sailjunkie]

Many thanks for the fast reply.

I'm one step ahead of you.

I know a good rigger who does work for the sailing co-op that we belonged to, and we have been talking for the past couple of weeks. I just told Paul to go ahead when his workload permits. He's pretty popular.

Yes, the boat was surveyed but most surveyors in BC will not inspect sails; and will not do a comprehensive standing rigging inspection.

Mark

[sailingdog]

I'm going to predict that he finds the boat has a damaged forestay and that it was caused by a halyard wrap. Let us know how it turns out and what he finds. Congrats on the boat btw.