ProFurl Upper Swivel Frozen to Foil

[roverhi]

Tried to lower my jib today and sail wouldn't come down. Went up the mast, released the halyard and the sail from the swivel but the ProFurl swivel is frozen to the foil extrusion. Vellyy intelesting. What could cause this to happen. The swivel still rotates freely but won't go up or down and is frozen to the foil. Before I get a bigger hammer, anyone have ideas on what's wrong and a non destructive way to free up the swivel

[Kapena]

I can't understand this well. My swivel is a very loose fit, also a profurl. I can't imagine it getting stuck.

[roverhi]

That makes two of us!!!!!!

[CaptPatAg]

PB Blaster and time. Spray hammer (lightly) spray. Check again tomorrow.......good luck.

[Minggat]

Hope you enjoy mast climbing.

[Charlie]

I think PB blaster is the way to go. I don't know what could cause the problem other then swivel getting locked in place by corrosion. When was the last time you had the sail and swivel down?

[bewitched]

some wild guesses:

Grub screw in foil working loose & jambing inner portion of swivel?

Some foreign body getting between the foil and the swivel somehow?

I can't see how it would have corroded together - too much movement going on.

I managed to get a 10mm spinnaker halyard well and truely stuck in a luff groove once - impossible I know - but sometimes (sh) it does happen!!!

Hope you sort it

[roverhi]

I went back up the mast this afternoon with a big hammer. I can get it to move by beating on it but only about a !/2" inch per blow. Don't know if there will be much left by the time I beat it down 38'. If I'm going to beat it off, will have to take the furler down and pound it off the top. I'll try a lubricant tomorrow but it doesn't feel like its a problem of corrosion. Something seems to be jammed inside swivel which is hanging it up.

On close inspection the fixed part of the swivel, where you shackle the sail to was slightly out of line with the luff groove. I beat on it and got it to move inline but that didn't solve the stickiness. I'd loosened up a screw on the side of the swivel before I did this. What does that screw do?? Afraid that it being loose might have allowed the swivel to rotate while whatever is wedged in their stayed in place.

Is their some kind of Plastic bearing that is supposed to fit into the luff groove?? If there is, that could be the problem if it's moved out of the groove and is now wedged against the side of the extrusion.

Hopefully can find a few volunteers to help me pull down the furler tomorrow.

[barnakiel]

a screw joining the foil elements came undone and jammed perhaps, see if the swivel is over one of the joints or not

old trick on all ProFurls - wonder why they never fixed this issue I read about it 20 years ago and I have seen it on brand new units back in 2005

maybe now that they are owned by the French someone will finally correct the messy design



b.

[s/v 'Faith']

Originally Posted by barnakiel

a screw joining the foil elements came undone and jammed perhaps, see if the swivel is over one of the joints or not

old trick on all ProFurls - wonder why they never fixed this issue I read about it 20 years ago and I have seen it on brand new units back in 2005

maybe now that they are owned by the French someone will finally correct the messy design



b.

+1, I have had this same thing happen.

[roverhi]

Unfortunately, the furler car was not on a joint so that wasn't the initial cause. Have moved the car down and back up about a foot with no change in freedom of movement. Something is jammed between the car and the foil. Just wonder what it could be.

I switched from the shackle for attaching the sail to a snap shackle. Wonder if this could have slightly altered the direction of load and caused something to go haywire??

[Jim Cate]

Query: When you drove it up and down, did it scar, abrade or otherwise mark the foil?

Jim

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by roverhi

I switched from the shackle for attaching the sail to a snap shackle. Wonder if this could have slightly altered the direction of load and caused something to go haywire??

There is a special shackle in some makes but as far as I can remember ProFurl uses pretty regular shackles on the swivel.

Let us know what it is. We might run into the same issue one day. (Thou I am with Plastimo / Harken rollers here).

b.

[roverhi]

Went up the mast and pulled down the furler. Lot easier to work on it on the ground. Drove the car off the top part of the foil with a wooden mallet. The problem is/was the Delryn bushing had rotated on the foil. The bearing is molded to fit the slightly out of round shape of the foil and has two ridges that are supposed to fit in the foil grooves. When it rotated, the grooves were pressing on the side of the foil binding the car. Doesn't seem to be anyway that I have to rotate the bushing back into the proper position with the tools I have.

I'm going to take it to Pacific Offshore Rigging in San Diego and see if they can fix it. They supposedly have a lot of experience with ProFurl. I talked with them before I went up the mast and they were puzzled as to the problem but said the only thing they could think of was the bushing moving out of position which was what happened. Supposedly they have replacement Delryn bushings so if there is a hope of saving the swivel car, they have the parts to do it. If not, it's under a $300 for a new one.

Mahalo for everyone's input.

[Larry in BVI]

I am interested in hearing the final resolution to this problem. I have a Beneteau 361 with ProFurl and experienced this same problem when putting the boat up for the season six months ago. I was able to bring the head sail and halyard swivel down to the foredeck but only with GREAT EFFORT. I observed the same misalignment in the molded bushing, repositioned it, but it quickly became misaligned again. It appears to be worn to the point that it will no longer conform to the foil shape.

Did you replace your bushing only or the entire swivel assembly? Where did you get parts? Did you have to make the repairs at the top of the mast?