profurl antiwrap installation

[Kim Klaka]

I have a 1996 vintage Profurl Basic B35 and I can't decide which way round to install the crescent-shaped half-moon plastic antiwrap at the upper end of the furler. The installation manual shows it with the crescent part away from the mast (i.e. forward of the forestay) , which makes sense from an anti-wrap viewpoint. However, I have a masthead rig with an offset spinnaker halyard block attached to a U-bolt on the masthead box coverplate (a very common setup). The fall of the halyard often gets caught in the notch behind the crescent, which is difficult to dislodge if I need to hoist from the other side of the boat. So for a few seasons I turned the antiwrap through 180 deg, i.e. the crescent is now behind the forestay, facing the mast. This stops the spinnaker halyard catching, instead it sometimes rubs against the plastic crescent when hoisting, wearing a groove in it and creating a lot of friction. The jib halyard is also now bearing against the crescent.
Neither option is very satisfactory. Is there a better way of organising all this at the top of the mast?

[UNCIVILIZED]

A fairlead for the spin halyard tail might keep it from sagging on other things near the masthead. Ditto a well placed cheek block. Or a cheek block in conjunction with a halyard exit/entry plate, so as to convert the halyard to being internal. As internal spin halyards are commonly setup like this. Of course you'd need to add a halyard exit plate down near deck level too.

Something like what's pictured here --> http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2044424

Also, the bit of hardware atop your masthead that the kite halyard is hung from is referred to as a crane.

[Kim Klaka]

Correction, it is the hoist of the spinnaker halyard that is getting caught on the antiwrap, not the fall. The fall clears everything, from the block to the slot where it enters the mast about 500mm below the block.
Apologies for confusion.

[Jim Cate]

Kim, have you considered that most furlers do no use such an anti-wrap device, but rely upon keeping the length of halyard above the upper swivel short and at an appropriate angle?

Perhaps you could simply not fit t he device and use the aforementioned methods to avoid halyard wrap... works for lots of other brand furlers, and has worked for me for years on several different designs of furlers.

Jim

[Goldfinger]

So what did you do in the end?

[roverhi]

IIRC mounted mine the way you ended up doing it. Keeping the halyard short, with a pendant if necessary, is still critical even with the anti-wrap device.

[Kim Klaka]

Originally Posted by Goldfinger

So what did you do in the end?

I filed the corners of the half-crescent fitting to a nice radius, then mounted it with the crescent forward of the forestay i.e. as per the manual. This has stopped the spi hal'd hoist from catching and has not reduced the anti-wrap effectiveness. Because I have an offset spi hal'd block (to port), I still have friction from the hoist when I am hoisting on the stbd side. It is not bad, but there are some slight grooves worn in the crescent front by the hal'd. Such is life. Next time I am up the mast I might try sticking some low friction tape on.