ZSPARS mainsail furler worm-drive

Thanks a lot for your prompt answer.

At the end, we've ordered the worm-drive from the US website, as it looked to be the same (and it was) and was a bit cheaper (430$ shipping incl. ).

We've made the same fix than you (with a 3mm adjustment in our case) and it now works beautifully ! 

Thanks again !

All the best,

Nicolas

I experienced the same problem on our ZSPARS worm-drive last year (Dufour 412 GL MY 2018). I can claim, that the cracks are exactly the same that you show in your photo. I also attach the photo of our worm drive. I confronted the distributor of the new worm drive with this problem. This issue is not caused by any pressure or wrong handling. In the opinion of a good friend who is an engineer for plastic molding, this is a production material issue that shrinks over time and causes the cracks. The used materials are insufficient to withstand the harsh environment. The distributor did approach ZSPARS without any reaction. I am truly afraid that we will face the same problem in 5-7 year again. With the worm drive, I also received an instruction how to remove the worm drive module but not the instruction how to change the worm drive itself. We are in Sardinia with our Dufour and you need to drive for a while to find someone that can remove the stainless steel safety pin. We found a heavy machinery work shop for Caterpillar that also struggled to remove that pin. During the process, half of the bearings fell out….It was a true mess. I complained big time about the insufficient documentation from ZSPARS without any response (how can it be that they are certified in Qualtiy Management????). I also compared with other mast manufacturers (e. g. Selden), they use a aluminum worm drive to obviously avoid any longterm problems. Just wanted to share my experience with you as well and maybe, we can exchange more experience in the future about this problem. 

Kind regards,

Markus