What to do?

[Rockinar]

When things go bad with roller furling, they go bad.

Previous owner neglected the UV cover. Some of the cover ripped, stiching came out and has now Wrapped itself all around the headsail and I cant unfurl it. Cant reach it with a pole. Have to look at it with binoculars in the day. Not sure why “worst case” always happens to me. This is why I switched my previous boats to hanks. Yeah hanks can be a huge pain, but they’re simple and just work fully or not at all.

Any ideas to maybe undo this? Im in Mobile Bay at a marina on my way to Texas.

[cal40john]

bosuns chair

[George_SD]

Anything, if neglected, can malfunction. So the conclusion should be not that furling systems are bad, but that proper maintenance = fewer problems.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by cal40john

bosuns chair

Yes, use a bosun’s chair. I have been up and down the furler hanging underneath with legs gripping around the furler quite easily.

Take tools with you so that you can cut off the damaged sacrificial strip. It is unlikely you will be able to unwind it by hand.

If you have a heavy duty sewing machine on board and have help feeding the sail onto the machine then the repair is not difficult as only the edge of the sail is involved. Most likely UV has caused the thread to become weak. Use Tenara (or similar) thread for the repair and while you are at it resew with Tenara all the way down the strip to avoid the problem occurring elsewhere (or while the sail is off make sure a sailmaker does this).

If paying someone to do this, it may be more cost effective in the long term to have the whole strip replaced if it is showing signs of wear.

SWL