All good advice, Craig.  Already working on the gear boxes for furlers/outhaul.  Hmmm, I guess if you aren't concerned enough to carry spares, maybe I should bag it, too.  Sure would save a lot of space and weight.  The hi-tech line sounds like it might be a good alternative, will see what I can find out.

The Amel owner's manual says "The jib furling system don't need any maintenance. Check the clutch pin is sufficiently greased."    It also says "Inside the jib furling tube the forestay is coated with grease.  In hot countries this grease may get fluid and drip at the bottom of the forestay.  However, don't fear a leak on the motor, for it's housing is sealed."
 
I've taken that to mean that the jib furler doesn't need any maintenance.  After reading other posts about the furler,  I think now that it means the motor is sealed and believe that the gearbox does need periodic maintenance....???
 
Thanks for all the knowledge and support, everyone.
Kent
S/V KRISTY
SM243
 
 
 
 
-- On Wed, 6/30/10, sv Sangaris <sangaris@...> wrote:


From: sv Sangaris <sangaris@...>
Subject: [Amel] Re: Replacing Standing Rigging
To: amelyachtowners@...
Date: Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 6:18 AM


 



Hi Kent,

Glad the info is helpful - good luck with the project.

Here's a couple of afterthoughts: most important is to absolutely take this opportunity to open your jib furler gear box and thoroughly maintain it - replace all the seals plus bearings, especially if there's any sign of water ingress.

Caspar and Vito were recently talking here (on the DB) about grease leaking on the deck from the furler gearbox (it's probably not the grease inside the furler extrusion) - that's not normal and imho is the clarion call that you're overdue to open up the unit and fix it. Btw, these are all stock parts from mechanical suppliers so no need to go to the factory. Same thing for the outhaul and main furling gear boxes - may as well stick new brushes in the motors too, and burnish the commutators.

Second, and another good suggestion from Joel, is if you going to take the masts down for the re-rigging, that's a good time to repaint them if they need it, plus refresh wiring and light fixtures and replace the UV damaged nylon washers all over.

And, no, we ended up not keeping anything for spares - we did cut open one of the swages and confirmed that they had a scary amount of corrosion in them, plus the inner strands of the cables were really rusty. Made us feel better about the need for the job, if nothing else. If I were inclined to carry spare rigging, it'd be interesting to look into Hi-tech rope, like the maxi's use, though terminations are tough, I understand.

Cheers, Craig



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