This has been a love hate relaitionship, the best sail shape adjuster ever, just one click can change the balance of a sail. It is also the biggest pain when the rope slips and it won't work. Seems to happen at the beginning of a season. Does the rope get slippery if it is not used for a while?



I have, Changed the rope, thrown sand in the serrated wheel, wetted the rope, pulled the wheel out and scraped it. Soaked the wheel in Vineger, soaked the wheel in coke, tried with out haul on or off, bought a new after market wheel, bought a completly new unit. and nothing seems to works properly for long
I have taken it back to Reg and works just great, and once they are run into the season they are quite reliable.
Now it does not work again and I want to sail today, I will

cut the ropes up and rig a purchase with blocks, unless some one has a good idea.

Ive had the same problem with mine, but only a couple of times, I pulled the stop knot out the bottom and re tied it thereby reducing the overall length of the rope and ensuring that when tensioned the wheel bit into a "new" area on the rope, I rationalised that because the rope was being tensioned in the same place repeatedly it became compressed and slippery. Seemed to solve the problem, immediately. Other then that I love it, so easy for down haul and up haul adjustment.
Good luck!

Jaymac, these little things can try ones patience I agree.
The issue is that they come with 4.5mm cord and its not available in Aus, well not the original stuff anyway. The size we get here is 4mm and next step is 5mm. I have tried 3mm, 4mm and 5mm. The best stuff is what you have from Reg

You have by the looks of it the Reg supplied stuff and that works OK, and yes the cord doesn’t last that long, before it starts to slip, at about the time you have say 30% tension on it. If you can get above the 30% it starts to work OK once again.
So what to do dilemma for people who have these.
Elmo will back me on this as he has some as well, (I have two)
The serrations on the wheel need to be dressed say at least once a season, about every 3rd serration, (profile to be sharpened and not dull edged) don’t do them all. (Dremmel Kit from Bunning’s will do this)
The cord, when it starts to slip, reverse it in the system (change end too end) as it is only a short section that gets the crap flogged out of it.
Also try lining up the cord through your sail pulley so it crosses over and gives a bit more of a direct pull across the serrated section (runs down around pulley with cord at an angle that brings pulley and cord into max contact) If the sail pulley sits out away from down haul, the angle of attack is just enough to let the bloody thing slip.
They are great when they work, but a bloody big pain in the coit when they give problems. Clean cord in fresh water so they dont go hard with salt impregnation.
Hope this helps.
You dont want it, throw it my way
Or you see me at Lucky Bay, give me your old pulley, and I will clean it up for you.

I replaced the wheel in mine midway through last season and it worked perfectly again after that. They are pretty easy to pull apart and put back together and a spare wheel costs less than $20.

My mate has one of these north extenions and he cannot even use it with his 2007 north daytona 7.3m sail, he has had to add an extra pulley on the tack of his sail so the rope is at a better angle to the pullys on the extenion You would think if you have modern matching gear from one brand it would be trouble free
As someone said maybe more R&D needed

Jman said...

My mate has one of these north extenions and he cannot even use it with his 2007 north daytona 7.3m sail, he has had to add an extra pulley on the tack of his sail so the rope is at a better angle to the pullys on the extenion You would think if you have modern matching gear from one brand it would be trouble free
As someone said maybe more R&D needed

That's odd. I have the exact same sail and don't have a problem rigging it up with this extension. I rigged it on the Daytona 6.6. for the first time on the weekend and it worked fine as well....

I found the rope would sit too high in the cleat wheel. I changed down to a 3.5mm rope and it works well now.

snides8 said...

had mine 2 yrs now,(got second hand ) same piece of rope,has never slipped,never replaced any bits...only prob is sometimes it releases with a bang but this would be due to rigging it at 4:1
worth its weight in gold..touch wood

Releases with a bang, yep they do after a while. To fix this (and a gun tradey can do it) gently bend the tang slightly back into line, they get out of shape after a while, and jump the segments on the ratchet wheel. Be careful however, as first time I over did it, and the little bastard wouldn't release too much grunt when bending tang Took a bit to get it sorted
Dont want it busting one of the segment lugs off releasing with a bang