Based on your message I found as well 3 fine cracks of about 2 cm long each near to the middle rivet of the place where the stays are fixed. My boat is a 920 crusing number 37 from 1999.

Any feedback is also appreciated.

In order to add another halyard for a screecher, I lowered the mast and discovered some fine cracks around the shroud and stay fittings. Please see the pictures at www.exotek.ca/mast. Has anyone else seen these “cracks” or are they merely cosmetic paint cracks due to mast flexing?

I currently have about 4500km on the boat (Hull #45). I have asked Jens this same question; I would appreciate any input.

Thank You, Tony

Whilst circumnavigating the whole of Ireland, (18 days, clockwise Howth to Howth, June this year) the roller reefing became progresivly more difficult to furl, on examination, found that one of the black plastic female locking caps that secure the clevis pin that is inside the bottom drum was rolling about in the anchor well. We used the spinnaker and the main halliard to secure the mast, slackend off the foresail halliard, the CLEVISIS PIN DROPPED OUT, would have been rather inerteresting if that had occured in the force 6 off Malin head in the ovefalls.

The black locking caps has a hole to take a seizing wire, not fitted !!!!

I had a fortunate escape and not loseing the mast on my Dragonfly 920. The spinnaker sheet had caught the circulare pin that holds the clevis pin which goes through the cain plate and pulled it out leaving it free to fall out, a near escape.

I have now secured the pins with amalgamated tape, hope this information spares you a near heart attack!!!

We are new to 920s, having just taken over a third share in Nr80, built 2001.

This September 05 we were cruising under full main and spi under a smooth true 16 Knot wind on the beam, in moderate to slight seas conditions, off Falmouth. The port shroud snapped and the whole rig went over the side, us looking somewhat ashtonished for a moment.

It took us three the best part of an hour and a half to get the rig back on board, ie salvage the mast, whereupon we motored back to Falmouth with the end of the mast in the water.
Lessons learnt:

1 I now know how to check for broken wires in the swages – the rigger showed me how to twist the ends so as to reveal any broken wires by the uneven spacing. As a result I could detect 3 broken wired in the opposite shroud so we replaced all the standing rigging.

2 Probably a good idea to replace the main back stays and fore stay every three years rather than five years as in manual, especially if a lot of sailing in waves witht eh slam on the rigging. The damage to the Stb ama was starting to be serious as the wave driven mast sawed throught eh ama rubrails and started in in the glassfibre proper. We only just got it up in time.

3 I now have a pair of snapshackles on board. Cost £50 but our main problem was we could not use the winches effectively as we had nothing to lead the lines round to put the pull where needed.

4 The mast shroulds were absolutely fine, probably as no flexion. Overall, cost was £2,400 approx, the bulk of which was covere by our excellent insurers- ,

Mr Skinner,DRL Marine Services Ltd, Yarmouth, Norfolk Claims Agent in UK for Edward William Marine Services, Malaga, Spain Tel. 0844 800 1212 email claims@drlmarine.com
-who sorted it all out in 4 days with the rigger, A2 Rigging, Falmouth, and we were back on our trip to the Scillies.

Hope this is useful info to someone.

Did you try raising the halyard all the way up without the mainsail? (Use a tag line to get it down). If that works ok, how much tension do you have on the battens? On my old boat, if I had lots of tension on the battens, it was a bear to get the sail down.

Keep us posted. Ted

Malcolm, Do you have any “messenger lines” or wiring that might be loose or looped inside the masthead area?

I would suggest lowering the mast again, and remove the stainless cap fitting at the masthead to allow internal inspection. It is possible that you have a wire loop or extra piece of line that is getting bound up in the sheave. This could be dangerous if it prevents you from reefing or lowering sail when you need to.

It is also possible that the halyard is twisted and wrapping around itself, or that it is wrapped or binding on another halyard lower down inside the mast. If you don’t see anything obvious inside the masthead area, it would be a good precaution to remove and re-run the halyard to make sure ther! e is no twist in it.

Hope this helps.

Again I have had the same experience as Tony.

My first reef line was badly chafed only after a few hours of sailing in high seas. As Tony describes it the reef-line moves (in spite of spectra rope) back and forth about 10 cm at the entry of the boom. Since the boom rotates (tilts) a little bit in its fixings the line comes in contact with the alumininim casting in which the pullies are houses and with the movement of the rope the cover (sheet) of the rope was completely torn off so the white Dyneema core of the rope was visible.

I talked with Jens Quorning about this problem and he gave me his o.k. to cut away the parts between the small holes an the bigger inner opening (with hacksaw and file). My boom fitting looks now as seen in picture. I hope the weakening of the alu casting is not critical. Now both reef-lines run free and there is no more chafe.

There are four places for the pullies in the end casting of the boom. In my boom the middle-positions are used. In this case the lines should not exite through the small holes in any way. Jens suggested to have the luff reefing block not too far down on the boom.[The owners maual actually says the block should be about 20cm (8″) above the boom, ed]

Please click on the photo to see it enlarged!

After sailing with a first reef in the main, the reefing line frayed badly near the tack. I rigged the boom with the reefing line exiting through the small hole above the block at the mast end of the boom. While sailing the luff reefing block was about 25 cm above the boom. I noticed that the line moves back and forth constantly through the luff reefing block when close hauled under gusty conditions. I tried increasing halyard tension to reduce this with no success.

Has anyone else experienced line chafe in this area, and if so is there a solution? Am I doing something wrong or did I rig the line incorrectly? (Which sheave should it exit the boom from… the outside sheave via the hole in the gooseneck fitting or one of the inside sheaves). Given the cost of Spectra/Dyneema there is good economic motivation to fix the problem.

I made the same experience as Tony. But I don’t think the Easylock is not suitable for horizontal mounting. The Problem is only salt-crystals, dirt and a little surface corrosion. If the Easylock has no grip pull back the rearmost Pin a little bit, the the rope ist then held again. I think the spring inside is not strong enought. After rinsing well with sweet water and putting a little grease into the mechanism (not on the clutch !) my Easylock works well again. After reading the message of Tony I disassembled one of the Easlocks and found no sign of wear, only slight corrosion which can be wiped off.

When the backstay is really tight, put the rope first on the winch, put the rope under tension an then release the Easylock. The “big bang” is not good for rigg, rope and equipment. The same goes for loosening the main – halyard.

The following describes my backstay experience. The failure of the Easylock is really my own fault, however, I was surprised that the design is not suitable for horizontal mounting.

This boat is the most fun you can have with your clothes on!

There is however a serious note that at speeds approaching 20 knots things can go wrong.

I made the mistake of hand tightening the leeward backstay (removing the excess slack) while sailing at 17+ knots. This meant that when the wind eased, the backstays were really tight!!

When it came time to return to the berth, I simply released the EasyLock rope clutch. It let go with a big bang.

When I tried to re-set it, I could not.

After securing the line to the winch, I removed the rope clutch and I found that the pin that pulls the mechanism forward was jammed on the plastic cheek of the clutch and was twisted so that the clutch could not re-engage. The plastic cheek was gouged by the pin and prevented the mechanism from returning to the locked position.

While puzzling over this I realised that the clutch was not designed to be mounted horizontally since the pins were simply held in place by the cheeks of the clutch and gravity naturally pulled them down so that the upper connection was tenuous at best.

To fix this, I fabricated a new pin from a clevis pin so that the head (which I reduced in size considerably) prevents the pin from falling down and rubbing on the cheek.

While this may be a good-enough fix, I suspect that it would be safer to replace the clutch with a different model that has captive pivot pin. After considering different sources I chose the Spinlock XT and installed it with no difficulty.

PS, I have hull #45 here in Vancouver Canada. Its fun having the fastest cruising boat around, being humble while passing million dollar maxis is really difficult!!

(see below, Robert Schultz, 6 Jan 2003) Gybing the A (asymetric) sail with the clew going forward of and around the luff is slightly easier than pulling it through the slot between the forestay and aft of the A luff.

However, you run the risk of an overly loose lazy-guy falling into the sea ahead of the bowsprit and going under the hulls.

A situation made worse if you habitually tie the free ends of the sheets together to form a continuous loop.

Not recommended for singlehanding

Closing the slot

1. Place a strap or line around rear crossbeam wth a ring or eye to receive a quick-release block.

2. Locate spinnaker (quick-release) block 1 ft outboard of cockpit coaming for windward sailing (up to 12 kts windspeed).

3. Locate spinnaker (quick-release) block midway between ama and main hull for close reaching.

Quick-release blocks make the position changes easier and the spinnaker sheet has to be run inside the side stay.

Take each genoa barberhaul line forward through the pulley on the eye on the end of the ama and then clip onto the pulpit together at the same point as the tack downhaul for the Asymmetrical spinnaker. The vessel is now in normal windward condition with genoa barberhauls available for offwind sailing.

When setting the Asymm. spi, clip the three lines (tack downhaul plus the two genoa barberhauls) to the Asymm. sail tack hole.

When reaching, the tack line keeps the Asymm tight down to the bow. As the wind goes aft, the spinn tack line can be freed whilst the windward barberhaul tightened so that the Asymm sets as a symmetrical spinnaker.
Voila, Tor; two in one!!

I sail my DF 920 primarily singlehanded. While watching the America Cup races from NZ, I noticed the cup boats gybe their A (asymetric) sails with the clew going forward of and around the luff. When I gybe my A sail, I pull the clew forward of the forestay and aft of the A luff. Does anyone have any feedback for me with one technique versus the other? I want the more simple and foolproof method.

p.s. I am having a new 1.2 oz. polyester A sail made for the coming season.

In response to the question about “Spinouts on rudder in rougher conditions” (see Stefan Poelkow, DF920 Hull section).
I don’t think the question is clear about what you mean by “spinout”, however if you mean an accidental gibe… I will try to answer based on my own experience:
When I have had the screacher (gennaker) or asymmetric spinnaker deployed the boat must have a full main that is well-sheeted, or it will be out of balance. If the main is reefed or not filled (loosely sheeted out too far to the lee) the large head sail can cause the boat to head off downwind and the imbalance could overpower the tiller control. This is a sail trim issue and can be avoided with proper sail trim. In my opinion you should never sail the DF-920 using only large head sails. (Except perhaps a very small reefed-down Genoa when sailing downwind, in very heavy wind).

Generally the 920 helm is very neutral, and requires no fighting with the tiller on any point of sail.

My experience for tacking is to sail as close as possible to the apparent wind in calm/flat water. In calm/flat water I am going up to 20 degee, with more waves it is better to be close to 30 degree. I am adjusting the jib inside of the end of the upper spreader (light waves).

Some instruments like the Navico Corus have a VMG (velocity made good) mode so it is easy to control the best tacking angle. As a work around for those without these instruments you might use the VMG function of the GPS if the wind is comming over a longer periode out of the same direction. You only have to choose a location to go to which is exactly in the direction of the wind.