Genoa on Harken furler, up hard down easy. Why?

[KrazySailing]

Very hard to winch the 125% genoa up the furler; but easily pulled down when halyard released! Did not matter how much of the sail was up the furler.


Why? How to fix?


1992 Beneteau Oceanis 510 with a Harken furler.
Halyard swivel slides and rotates easily by hand.
Once the sail is up, furling in and out, sailing and tacking not a problem.
Sail feed easily into furler's goove.
Used a spinnaker halyard to pull the sail up and same problem.

[wholybee]

Probably just weight. You have the weight of the sail and the friction of the sail in the groove added together when raising. When dropping, that weight is helping overcome the friction, not adding to it. So, imagine (just guessing numbers) 100lbs sail plus 100lbs to overcome the friction, that would be 200 lbs of effort to raise, but 0lbs of effort to lower.

Spray the luff tape with SailKote and also the furler goove if you can.

[psk125]

Was going to suggest masthead sheave problem, but then you say spin halyard has same result. Issue with both sheaves not likely. Are there screws in the furler foil that could be loose, and need adjusting? Pressure up may tighten the slot, but no problem when sail is going down. The Harken site mentions "foil connectors" and screws that go into them, but more details are scanty. A 125% Genoa shouldn't be difficult to hoist. A dose of McLube or similar lubricant in the slot might also help.

[KrazySailing]

Wholybee: it's almost as hard pulling it fir first 3 feet as the last 3 feet.
Spraying Sailkote as far as we could read made no difference.

Psk125: the spinnaker halyard is not on a masthead sheave. It's on a block.
Will check foil screws.

[Pandor]

One more thing for you to consider, the halyard might have an internal wrap around another halyard inside the mast. This would increase friction when raising sail under load but would be negligible when lowering sail with no load on halyard.

To troubleshoot, I’d eliminate the sail from the equation and tie a sheet to the end of the halyard. Make sure it moves freely up and down when there is load on the sheet.

[JPA Cate]

Sometimes the groove for the luff tape gets dirty; it can become salt-encrusted, as well. Wash the groove. Then use McLube on it; then make sure the luff also is clean. Then, it should go up okay.

However, if it goes up freely, then after 3 ft. is really hard, I can imagine that being something agley at the bottom join of the furler parts, and one way to check it would be to insert a piece of the correct mm diameter 7 x 7 s/s wire, and see if you can determine where it binds. Worst scenario is that you have to take down the furler and take it apart and put it back together, and that is something you can do yourself.



Ann

[KrazySailing]

Thx

Will try hauling a weight

[KrazySailing]

It binds all the way up, but falls easily

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by KrazySailing

It binds all the way up, but falls easily

That really sounds like a halyard problem, likely inside the mast. High friction when loaded, much less when unloaded.

Jim

[psk125]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

That really sounds like a halyard problem, likely inside the mast. High friction when loaded, much less when unloaded.

Jim

Whollybee says he tried using the spin halyard, which is on a separate block (presumably on a crane, not internal) and had the same problem. Makes it sound like a luff foil issue.

[Jim Cate]

^^^^
Depends on whether t he spin halyard fall is internal or external to the mast. On our boat the fall is inside, just like the genoa halyard and could also be fouled.

In post 8 he seems to say that the binding is there w hen hoisting a weight as well which rules out foil issues... but perhaps I'm interpreting his statement incorrectly.

Jim

[pcmm]

I've had this same issue with my boat. The real problem.. forestay did not have enough tension.

is there any curve in the forestay/foil when the sail starts to get hoisted? I'll be there is a significant curve in the foil

[KrazySailing]

Same problem hoisting on external spinnaker block.

[KrazySailing]

Do not think it's due to slack headstay as it hard to raise even at the first 10 ft. But w ill lcheck and try hoisting a weight

[Pandor]

If you have the same problem on two halyards and they both run through the mast on the return then you have wrapped halyards inside the mast. The only solution is to pull individual halyards and use a mousing line from the top of the mast with an 18 inch long bicycle chain tied to it as a weight.