Right now I have an issue with the TI mast trying to walk out of the mast cup. I can put in the mast, it clicks, I pull back on it and it is firmly seated. Downwind and medium wind all fine. After some serious upwind tacking (15mph) back and forth the mast walks it's way above the detention clip. At that point we court disaster and reefing in the sail is tough as we are not correctly seated. Once reseated it stays put for a while. Couple times mast was out about an inch above where it should be.
My mast pin is fine. The reefing spool has not moved on the mast. The mast cup is solid. I have all the little white balls (24). My X-brace is not moving, nor has it broken it's weld. The "V" mast cup brace is solid, correctly adjusted and bolted in place. The reefing spool is not broken it still has the lip all around that is supposed to stay behind the retainer clip.
I have replaced the SS detention spring and the clip seems to work fine. I have even added a bungee to the detention clip release handle to add more tension to be sure it was not somehow loosing it's grip and allowing the mast to slip up. Didn't help.
Imaging driving a stake into the ground - pretty hard to pull out, but if you shift it back and forth you can more easily pull out. Upwind on one point of sail the mast is held hard on the one side and with the tack it shifts to the other side. It is this scenario that the mast won't stay seated; it walks up and out past the clip.
I have always thought the clip, while being very easy to use, seems a bit insubstantial when it comes to holding down that big 18ft mast under stress.
I can have the mast walk out 4 or 5 times on a 12 mile up wind run and it is really beginning to test my patience.
Each time it is a panic to dump off the wind, manually roll in the sail ad re-seat the mast. Once reseated I can't pull it back out without releasing the clip, but if I tack upwind long enough it walks back out.
The only fix I can currently imaging is kludging some kind of hose clamp & cut piece of hose onto the mast below the bearing plate to act as a stop. Would make removing the sail mast in an emergency impossible and would slow setup setup and add drag when reefing the sail. I believe there is a commercial version of what I describe, but I'd like like to fix it the right way.
I've seen broken TI masts and I don't want that. Apologize for wordy description as I wanted to cover everything I have done and what was happening
So.. any suggestions? yellow 2010 TI
BTW if this is happening on even a small number of TIs the warranty on a broken mast or risk of injury is serious stuff.
Thanks.