Big lubricant stain, is it my facnor ls200 furler?

[YesIsail]

Hello, people of the sea.

I was seeing lately black grease stains on my deck, litte black drops. They were numerous and a pain to clean them. Then yesterday as a took a walk on the deck I saw that huge stain, it was lubricant. I don´t know where it is coming from, I suppose it is my furler, the top part.

I send you guys a picture of the stain

Furling my genoa was getting harder, the bottom of the furler seem to roll fine, maybe not too smooth but to me it seems ok, so today I put down the genoa to see weather thre top rotating mechanism was stuck. To my surprise it seems to work fine It was not suppose to work fine without grease...

So I called facnor distributor here in Spain, he said " The top part of your mast has no grease" ok, I am going crazy now!

Any sailor here with experience with this big black stain and furler not working properly?

[Jim Cate]

G'Day mate,

I have a smaller Facnor on my staysail. After several years of heavy useage the upper unit failed. Upon inspection, it had dry s/s ball bearings of rather inadequate size (IMO). The replacement unit had been redesigned and was more robust and seems to have lubricant and seals. (Facnor didn't seem embarrassed about the inadequate size of the original and charged full price for the replacement).

The lower unit is lubricated, and it has leaked for years. However, the lubricant is quite thick grease and does not drip... just oozes out and gets on your hands! I tried to disassemble it to replace both lube and seals... no luck. So I turned it over to a competent rigger and after a long struggle and several communications with France he too had to give up. It is designed so that disassembly without destruction is not possible.

Now that I've had my rant, I guess that my comment is that unless they have used a different grease in your unit, or that it has been extremely hot, that mess doesn't look like it came from the upper swivel... far too liquid.

So, good luck with tracking down your problem. I know that I'll never buy another of their furlers in the future...

Cheers,

Jim

[Roy M]

What is the composition of it? Greasy, liquid, crusty, powdery? Does water remove it? How about acetone? Does it have a smell? I wouldn't go so far as to ask how it tastes.

[YesIsail]

The composition was definitely greasy, not liquid, I had to use soap and some kind of hard remover in order to get it clean. there is no other part of the boat that has grease, it has to come from the top of the mast. The boat points to the wind , that mass of grease must have fallen from up. It has to be the furler, the top part. If it was from the bottom drum, it wouldné have traveled all the way there.

[sabray]

I have never seen that before. Except for some stuff birds have done to my boats which have been pretty amazing. Straight site up is the furler gear directly above this. Did someone put lube in the gear that is now melting and dripping. Maybe clean it and put out a bucket at the spot.

[Cheechako]

that looks like something out of a large Shagpoke. (Heron)

[YesIsail]

Originally Posted by sabray

I have never seen that before. Except for some stuff birds have done to my boats which have been pretty amazing. Straight site up is the furler gear directly above this. Did someone put lube in the gear that is now melting and dripping. Maybe clean it and put out a bucket at the spot.

The furler is not straight up. but there is something like 12 knots of wind, so it is not going to fall straight.

Like you say, maybe it wasnt furling properly and some tecnician put lube on it. It is worthless to put lube since it is sealed.

What can be the the cause for my furler not doing its job properly? Iam going to put a bucket right now and see tomorrow.

Keep ideas coming, yeh Mon!

[sabray]

The bearings are probably stuffed.especially if it has a lumpy feal when its in action. These things get salt all up in the moving parts and need some service and cleaning.

[YesIsail]

Facnor furlers are not servizable, you cannot open that thing up and grease it , I wish...

[sabray]

Usually they will talk about rinsing at least. But I'm n ot familiar with facnor. If the bearings were stuffed you could tell by hand turning while not under load.

[YesIsail]

I am going to clean it good with water and turn it at the same time, and see what happens. The thing with the lub on the deck remains a mistery, unless some technician.

I took down the Genoa and there is no pressure. Still the furler turns, it needs some effort with the hand, but not really much, but then again it is not as if it would just spin for itself if I just push it.

[sabray]

Is it tensioned or tuned properly?

[YesIsail]

tried letting go some tension when the sail was up and still no real improvement