Roller Furler Jamming

[riptide]

Hi all. Wondering if anyone could give any ideas on my furler jamming.I seems to hang up at the top especially when I try to furl sail up.It twists the halyard around the furler and forestay. If I take sail off it seems to work fine.I can spin the piece at the top of the furler that the sail hooks to and it seems free and I am unable to make it bind up.The only thing that I see out of the ordinary is it has a very slight bend in the track about 4 ft. from the bottom.I have tried shaking forestay while furling sail and it makes no diff.The more pressure you put on sail [ie. wind] the worse it is.I can see nothing wrong with the bearings at either end and have tried to lube w/dry lube.I was wondering if I put more tension on forestay to keep it straighter if that would help.The mast was just stepped and I am not sure if I have enough tension on all stays and shrouds.Any ideas and help would be app.Thanks

[Vasco]

Usually halyard wrap is due to the sail not being a full hoist. Putting a wire pennant at the head or tack might help. This is a common problem especially with Harken furlers. The swivel should go to within a couple of inches of the top, any more of a gap will result in halyard wrap.

[riptide]

Thanks-I'll check on that. It is a harken. Are you suggesting to put something on the swivel so I can see if it's all the way up?

[Vasco]

Put a wire pennant on the bottom of the swivel. Check how far the sail is from a full hoist and make this the length of the pennant. Attach the sail to this. Then the swivel can go right to the top. Another way is to put the pennant on the tack of the sail. I prefer this as it raises the sail a bit and it's not as hard to see under it.

[cal40john]

Backstay tension too loose, swivel not close enough to top, angle between halyard and forestay not great enough even if swivel all the way up requiring a halyard restrainer.

From Harken roller furler manual page 25, 26:

http://www.harken.com/pdf/4416.pdf


This is for a mark iv. The links on the harken site don't work for me to get to each version, so this is a direct link found with Google.

John

[riptide]

Thank's to both of you for your responses.I think the sail height is going to be my problem.The harken website was very helpful.I'll check when I go to boat this weekend. Thank's again rick and john, mark

[barnakiel]

Halyard wrap - the halyard is too lose or to close to the foil. Each manufacturer quotes a minimum angle, usu in range of 15-25degs.

1) tighten the halyard,
2) put a halyard restrainer on the mast, as per manufacturer's guides.

On a sail with shorter luff (storm jibs, etc) an extension luff tape can be had from a sailmaker to keep the halyard angle same with full length sails.

b.

[riptide]

Thhanks for the help.Problem was insufficent hoist{where have I heard that before?]Made up pendant and solved problem. Thanks again- Mark