I dismantled the Z-Spars furling mechanism when Margarida was in Marina do Douro, Portugal back in the winter of 2014/15. That was the only winter that Margarida was in a marina at a distance of 15 km from my home. In all the other winters, Margarida has been more than 1,000 miles away from home. The main sail was very difficult to furl/unfurl and the black plastic furler drum was broken. I managed to repair it with success. A detailed description of what I have done can be found here (I am Vladis in the post).

I left Margarida in Orei, Greece, for the 2024/25 winter. During the season I started to notice the same difficulty to furl and unfurl the main sail. And, when I was preparing the boat for hauling out, I noticed that there were no steel balls in both the upper and lower bearings. So I tried to remember how to remove the furling mechanism and was able to bring it with me in the hold luggage of our flight to Porto. Here is a photo of the pieces that I am cleaning before assembling with new 5mm diameter bearing balls.

 

 

I have contacted Z-Spars UK and got a quotation of 1,165 GBP for the complete mechanism, reference part #3627 showed next:

 

I was not able to remove the 2 screws that connect the upper and lower parts to the aluminum cylinder bar. I took the assembly to a local workshop and they were able to remove the 2 screws by destroying them. However the cylinder bar could only be removed from the lower part (picture on the right). The upper part (picture on the left) was calcined and permanently connected to the bar. Using an hammer and heat has failed to separate them. Fortunately everything can be disassembled from the lower part.

 

 

I will be assembling the mechanism as I did in 2015. If I encounter any problem I will update this writing. I have already ordered a new sail by Quantum Sails based Athens. I will mount it during next spring. I ordered the sail without the vertical battens of the original one, hoping that the absence of the battens will improve the furling/unfurling operation. I terminate this post by leaving a photo of the drum as I repaired back in 2015. The cracked region is in the upper part of the drum and with the sail completely out the rope does not reach that region (18 turns only). No problem with it!

 

Edited one day after: the balls should be stainless steel 5mm diameter! I noticed that the old ones were just steel. They were inside the mast very corroded and I was able to pick some with a magnet. They measured less than 5mm due to corrosion. I also need to get a plain washer with internal diameter of 50mm and external diameter of 80 mm and  1.5mm thickness. They are very difficult to find. If I do not find the exact dimensions referred to above I will order one with 62mm internal diameter and 80mm external diameter from Ebay. This washer is needed to fill the 1.5mm gap shown in the picture. If I do not use that washer the balls can come out and, I think, was what happend (the 2 washers in the picture were just used to estimate the thickness of the needed washer)

 

Edited 2 days after: after all, I was able to get a 62mm (in) 80mmm (out) 1.5mm thickness in a hardware shop here in an hardware shop 2 km from home. However, in order for it to sit nicely in receiving part, I had to file the washer. The complete assembly ready to mount is shown