Mainsail Furling Motor

My other project is to get the mainsail furler working again. The electric motor failed last season, so we used the manual crank to furl last summer. The first step in the process is to remove the boom from the gooseneck, easily accomplished with some help from my friends. The next step is to remove the 12 screws that attach the gooseneck to the mast. Once those are free, it's just a matter of lifting the gooseneck with the furler motor and gearbox out of the mast slot. Sounds simple, no?

This would have been easy, except for the fact that when the mast was overhauled a couple years back, the riggers used some sort of adhesive on all of the screws to lock them in, and prevent corrosion. With a screwdriver I couldn't get any of the screws to budge without fear of stripping them. With an impact driver I was able to get 7 screws free. Still 5 to go. Trying a heat gun and the impact driver again, still no luck. So, I have asked the crew at the yard to help me with this... hopefully by next weekend I will have the motor on my workbench.

I even think I know what's wrong with the motor: the brushes tend to turn to dust if any water gets in from the top, and this tends to happen every 3-5 years or so. More to come...