Roller Furler is a Pain!

[xeon_tsd]

can you make a stop? Drill a hole that you can stick a pin into.. or 4 of em so you dont have to move the drum around so much to find the hole.... that combined with a cleat might work well.

[FrankZ]

I had an issue with my Harken that it would roll up pretty as you please but you couldn't roll it out. Seems the foil had slipped in the clamp and was riding on top of something inside the furler. When you deploy and pull the sheet it would cause the bottom to move just so because you are pulling at the middle of the foil. When rolling it back up you pull on the bottom so the foil doesn't bend and bind. I had to move the foil back up just a bit.

[Blue Stocking]

Forgive me, but you seem to be wandering a bit. :I am
Your original question was how do you lubricate it--that was answered, along with other suggested ways to make it smoother in operation.
It is not intended to be a reefing gear--you say so yourself
You have been informed in a PM how I solved the same concerns with my system.
Which continuous line systems can be, and are approved for reefing (not furling)
What is it that your want to hear?

[Steve W]

I reef my continuous loop Hood furler often, yesterday included. I wonder if your furling line is too small, not allowing the teeth to hold the line. I cleat mine off at the cockpit and it has never slipped. Sorry I don't have the manual here, but the reccomended furling line is at www.pompanette.com. I think mine is 3/8". I think the centering clamp was only $25.00, if yours turns out to be bad.

[Steve W]

Mine is a Hood 810 continuous loop and it sure can be reefed. However, if you cleat the wrong line, it will spin continuously and not hold the reef at all. I cleat the line that furls the sail back in, not the one that lets it out. You may have to put some pressure on both lines for the teeth to grab the line. If yours has teeth and a the right size line, I just can't see any reason it will not hold. It is easy to get them mixed up with the excitement of sails flapping and the rail in the water. If that does not work for you, I have no idea what is wrong with the furler. Understand that I am normally rollling in my 150 to about 100, not a perfect reef since my sail has no luff foam, etc. Depending on your definition of a reef, it does not provide the perfect reef in that sense, because there is still a small wrinkle or two in the sail. Not trying to antagonize you, just trying to help out.

[forsailbyowner]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

Ohhhh yeah, and no ratchet, no brake, no teeth in the drums. It's in or it's out, but it's what I have and I might as well take care of it.

I don't use roller reefing myself, I prefer hank on. I've never seen roller reefing with a brake or ratchet in the drum. As mentioned its done with the continuous line. You may want to take another look at your tactics to get full function from your rig. I couldn't see being stuck with one unreefable foresail. I carry 5 jibs and change them often in changing conditions

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

Look up the Hood 810. It simply cannot be reefed.

Sounds the same as our Harken for the Spin, i'ts a continous loop that doesn't allow reefing whereas our Harken on the Genoa wraps a non-continous line around the furling drum. 2 totally different creatures sounds like yours is the same as our former.

Taking pressure off should allow you to furl it in, handy unit....Cheers

[forsailbyowner]

Ok I googled it and there's a description of the steps required to reef it at sail.net. They do refer to it as a POS unit though. If I couldn't reef it I'd take it down and chuck it in the nearest dumpster.

[knothead]

I don't know if Raku still has this furler or still needs help. But I can take a look at it for her. There are usually a number of things that contribute to a poorly operating system.

The furler she has doesn't have sealed bearings. They are open race bearings. The most important thing with these is to rinse them with fresh water after every salt bath. Then a light lube or dry lube is about the best you can do.
They can be replaced.

As was pointed out, the centering clamp is very important. But also, there is a hole in the drum where you are supposed to attach the old hank on tack shackle. That is supposed to keep the drum from rotating. Sometimes there are issues getting it just right and the drum is allowed to move too much.
There is supposed to be a little play between where the drum, with no halyard tension rests on the centering clamp and where it pulls up against the tack shackle.
The way it's designed is that the halyard tension pulls the entire system up. When it's just sitting on the centering clamp, it's doesn't roll, but when you lift it a little it will roll fine. So the position of the centering clamp is important.

Another part that often gets overlooked is the top bearing. It centers the top of the extrusion like the centering clamp does for the bottom.

As always, a halyard restrainer is a must unless there is the recommended angle between the halyard and the forestay. And frankly, that's rare. Halyard wrap is almost inevitably going to occur at some point and will possibly damage, (bird cage) the headstay at the masthead, (where you won't see it).
I've seen one headstay, using this same furling system, completely twisted off and only the halyard was holding up the mast, (B and R rig).
That wasn't the fault of the system but the installer.

Lastly, you can reef these systems. It is important to use the size line that grips the best. But after rolling it in and before sheeting it home, to make sure the sail doesn't roll out accidentally, you have to go forward and secure the tack of the sail.
It can be done by tying the tack shackle, on the top of the drum off to the pulpit rails on either side or some other strong point. You can have a short length of strong small diameter line with a snap shackle that you use for this.
Clip the snap shackle to the tack of the sail and then lash it to something. Though it requires going forward, it does allow reefing.

Anyway, the bottom line of what I'm trying to convey is that it is not very common, especially with these older systems that the trouble is a single thing like lubrication. And secondly, these, and often many other older systems get bashed unfairly. The problem is that often they were not installed correctly and that they aren't completely understood by their owners/users.

There are often a couple of fairly simple things that can be done to dramatically improve performance.

Are you in the Gulfport marina Raku?