Winterizing a stepped furling mast:

When the sailboat is in the water with its mast up with no main sail
furled,
every time the boat rocks with the flow, the inside furler hits the
internal
side of the mast and make a very annoying noise. Soon as the main sail is
hoisted and furled there is no more noise.

When the mast is left stepped and the sailboat is on the hard, the main
sail
is removed and stored for the winter. Then the inside main furler is left
free and will hit the inside wall of the mast every time the wind cause
vibration. To prevent this to happen some people will insert pieces of
carpet inside the opening of the mast. My question is how to insert the
carpet and how far up the mast. Then is the spring how is the carpet
removed?

TIA

Put a grommet (or similiar device) in the top and bottom of the
carpeting. Hoist with the halyard in the top gromment and tie a
"retriveing" line in the lower grommet.

In the spring, release the halyard and pull the carpet down with the
retrieving line.

"pirate" wrote in message
...
Put a grommet (or similiar device) in the top and bottom of the
carpeting. Hoist with the halyard in the top gromment and tie a
"retriveing" line in the lower grommet.

In the spring, release the halyard and pull the carpet down with the
retrieving line.

Thanks a lot,
Does this means that the lenght of the carpet has to be about the lenght of
the mast?
Is there any guide line about the width of the carpet? or filling the front
opening is appropriate?
Then, some of the main halyard will be left expose to the winter element, by
now you may have figured this out. What your read on it.
TIA