Well, today I went down to the boatyard to remove the unit to send it to Sailspar for servicing. Needless to say things did not go as planned. I have attached three photos below which will hopefully make what follows a little bit clearer.
I assumed that if I undid the screws in the attached pic forestay_2.jpg the whole unit would somehow just slide off. However, I was unable to remove them, so instead undid the four nuts that hold the top of the inner drum to the forestay cover (for want of a better word).
I was a bit amazed when a load of bearings fell out, as I had not expected there to be any there. (Apparently between the bearing race on the top of the drum and what is marked on the pic forestay_1.jpg as the top bearing race - though it is completely flat and so not like any normal type of bearing race.
The plastic washer which looks as though it might be intended to hold these in place would not come off over the flange the bottom of which forms the top bearing surface, so that cannot be its function.
It was also now apparent that the remainder of the fitting would not slide off even if the seized stainless screws were removed, as it would not pass over the flange formed by the ring forming the top bearing surface. Is the nut with flats on it a locknut designed to be removed to detach the bottom section of the unit from the forestay? This seems the only way further dismantling is possible, though this would mean that the forestay was only held on by a thread which one would imagine could unscrew if the forestay itself rotated too much.
(Dismantling as described above also seems the only way to get the swivel off the bottom of the foil as well)
I realise this might not make a lot of sense, but it is the best I can do. Can anyone shed any light?
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