Mystery stick and furling system....

[R Booth]

Well, we've owned this Irwin 52 for almost 4 years now, and not a single person I've asked could I.D. this set-up. So we'll throw ourselves at the mercy the court, so to speak, and see how good you guys are.

Here's some hints;

Double spreaders
Navtec hydraulics inside mast-(for luff tension).
Taller than normal stick-(for the I 52).
Rod rigging installed in the mid 90's.

And here's some pics. Thank you in advance..........

Rick

[R Booth]

I'm sorry, folks. Was I supposed to offer a T-shirt for the first correct answer?..........

Father's Day weekends might have a somewhat smaller set of active board participants...

Do you have a pic of the masthead?

[R Booth]

This is the best shot I could dig out right now. Hope it's enough.........

[Brion Toss]

Hi there,
Sorry to have been so long in getting to this. It looks like you have a relatively rare type of "open-backed" in-mast furler, but I can't quite recall the name of the manufacturer. I believe they are/were in Quebec. Metal Mate? Something like that. Anyway, I believe that every current in mast furler, and most of the old ones, feature an extrusion slot that is narrower than the foil, so the aft mast wall takes most of the aft load. If yours is the type I'm thinking of (and I only worked on one, many years ago), the foil is the stay, and if it isn't tuned quite hard will actually exit the mast at the middle, when under way.
That's about as close as I can get. How are the bearings?
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[R Booth]

Thank you Brion, appreciate your time. And you're correct about the foil and luff leaving the mast cavity when it's blowing and the hydraulic is eased. I'm in the process of re-doing the spaghetti mess of crappy lines and what not that held the wire main halyard attached to the furling drum. Am going to install 2 turnbuckles at the 2 welded eyes on top of the drum with a pair of Amsteel eye-thimballed tethers. Leaves me with 4 inches plus of adjustment.

I'll research the Canadian mfg. and see what I can find.......

Rick