Stiff roller furling

[Quadrille in JB]

There are some great suggestions as to the problem of stiff roller furling.
I also have problems with our pro furl on our 34 O'day.
The drum rotates about 180 deg easily and then it's very hard to rotate the next 1/2 turn. Then easy the next 1/2 turn, and so on....
The halyard was fairly loose, which caused problems with my last boat, so I tightened it up (very tight). And the problem didn't seem to change. This boat is new to me as we have only had it since a week before hurricane Irma and we had to hide out in a friend's hurricane hole for a while.
The mast was removed a little over a year ago and glass beaded and coated with Awlgrip, both sails were replaced, and all of the standing rigging replaced at the time by Mack sails. The Pro Furl was not replaced.
It almost appears that the forestay is sagging, causing the problem. Has anyone experienced this before?

[daletournier]

Try the simplest thing first. Rinse bearings with warm water, or warm water with a little vinegar. Often salt is the culprit. May need flushing several times.

[Tom1340]

If the forestay is not tight, the foil will sag with the stay, and this curvature will interfere with furling.
I had a furling problem on my boat. Turned out the halyard was trying to wrap around the forestay above the head swivel. I solved the problem by installing a 4 inch section of wire rope (thimbles on each end) between the sail head and the swivel. This shortened the exposed halyard by an equivalent length and solved my problem. Eventually I replaced the short section of wire rope with a halyard guard at top of mast.

[redbeard1]

Originally Posted by pcmm

I'll add: NEVER, NEVER ,NEVER use a winch to furl your headsail!!!!!!!! you can do a great deal of damage to both the furler and headstay using a winch. With a winch its too easy to apply too much force without realizing it. you should be able to furl by hand. Check the bearings and the stay also to make sure it hasn't "unwound" and expanded causing some of the friction.

p"

Strongly agree with the above. Harken manual says only use winch if you can bring in sail without winch (i.e., winch is only there to save effort)

We had similar issues with our furler. The link below is for an old harken video that explains how to troubleshoot your furler. It touches on many of the points already raised but gives more detail and video. Look at 3:28 for an image of how your forestay may look if it does not have enough tension. Then try to visualize how much harder it will be to bring in your jib if the forestay has the banana shape.

We tried many of these tips (ours had a bad case of banana forestay) and finally got to the point where we can bring our 130 without winch in up to 20 knots of wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PVazpR4qXU&t=3s

[Quadrille in JB]

Thanks for the tips. The video is excellent. I'll go to the boat today and check out everything I can. I suspect a banana shaped furler.
Ill check the tension and take my drone along to get some masthead pics.
Hopefully the wind will stay down and I can get the sail down.
The only problem I've ever had with a furler was a wrapped halyard which was easy to fix.
With help from you all I'll know a lot more about it when it's fixed

The boats on the hard getting a new radar/solar panel/dingy Davit arch and awlgrip on the hull and of course a good bottom sanding and bottom paint.
It looks like I'll be pretty busy for the next month or so.
I'll keep you posted, hopefully with some good pics.
Bill

[osprey877]

I had the same problem with a Harken furler. Turned out the cause was that the foil had slipped down the forestay enough that it was binding on the forestay turnbuckle to the point where I was basically screwing and unscrewing the forestay turnbuckle every time I furled and unfurled the jib. There were just two small set screws holding the foil in place and the force imparted when you pulled the genoa down to store it away was enough to cause them to slip. Very Micky mouse design. I solved the problem by drilling a hole and putting a pin through the foil so it couldn't slip down anymore. Hope that helps.

[Quadrille in JB]

Fortunately this morning, the wind laid down and I was able to unfurl the headsail. First I lessened the tension on the halyard, which didn't seem to make any difference. Then I tightened the backstay 8 turns which helped some. Then I tightened the backstay 2 more turns for a total of 10 turns, this made a big difference.
Now I can deploy and recover the headsail from the cockpit without too much trouble. It's still not perfect but I hesitate to tighten the backstay any more without a tension gauge. The Loos tension gauge that I had for my last boat doesn't fit the larger stays on this boat. I'll order the next size up from Amazon tonight.
But...While the headsail was unfurled, I could not lower the sail, even when pulling it manually as hard as I could. The halyard runs inside the mast. I got out my drone and took some masthead pics but I haven't downloaded them yet to see how they turned out.
I'll post the pics if they are worth looking at. I'll probably end up taking a trip up the mast. It won't be my first time.

[Quadrille in JB]

The wind it was down again this morning and I got the drone up to take some pictures. Here's a picture. It doesn't look pretty. I'm open to suggestions as to the best way to recover from this.
Thanks,
Bill

[belizesailor]

Well...at least you've clearly identified the problem. Thats a pretty nasty wrap. I think a trip aloft to sort it out is the only likely solution.

[Quadrille in JB]

After going up the mast and clearing the wrap problem we were able to lower the sail. The basic cause of the problem it that the SST strap that connects the top roller assy to the halyard interferes with the black anti-wrap piece at the top. It cannot pass by the black piece where it would be prevented from wrapping. Today I'll lower the sail again and bend the strap out so that it can fit into its proper place. It looks like this problem has been around for awhile as the halyard was badly frayed. It's also getting replaced with Samson XLS extra T. I'm surprised that the riggers let this condition get by them as all of the standing rigging and both sails have been replaced recently. This boat is new to me.
Fortunately I had a couple of friends at the boatyard pitch in to help me as this job needs more than 2 hands.