Halyard tension for roller furling

[Jackg]

My Pro-Furl on my 32' Seawind is a pain to roll up - even when dead into the wind it takes a fair amount of strength to haul in the furling line and roll up the sail. Does increasing or decreasing the halyard tension improve this?

[Orin]

Yes, if halyard tension is too slack it can create problems. I have never experienced problems related to the halyard being too tensioned… that said it’s not a guitar string on my boat.

The issue you may notice if it’s too slack is the halyard wraps partially around the forestay when furling or unfurling the sail. On my boat this messed with the furler geometry enough to make it near impossible to furl the sail.

This can also happen if the halyard has too much stretch.

It’s possible to put an eye or “deflector fairleed” on the mast to assist with the issues that I was having there.

Can’t speak to your specific boat or furler. Do you have picture of the mast top?

[Calif.Ted]

Decrease probably, does it unfurl by itself once started ? Never had a pro-furl but I have found Hood, Harken and Schaeffer to all be sensitive to halyard tension. My guide is the ease with which it unfurls, you shouldn't have to pull it once started in even a light breeze.

[SailingHarmonie]

Not just halyard tension, but also forestay tension. A poorly tensioned forestay will sag, and the resulting curve makes it very difficult to roll up. This is a frequently missed point on boats with bendy rigs that adjust back stay tension to control sail shape. On most masthead rigged cruising boats, the backstay isn’t adjusted much, if at all, but it can still be too loose for good operation of a furler.

[nuku34]

In general, the proper halyard tension with any furler system is just enough to take the wrinkles out of the luff. That said, one can apply more tension to stretch the luff and bring make the sail entry curve finer. Too much of this will make furling harder.

In the Profurl manual, there is a very good explanation of how to set up the halyard exit point to prevent halyard wraps.

Your difficulty in furling may also be due to stiffness in the top and bottom bearings. They do need the occasional lubrication. This is easily checked when the sail is rolled up.

[Mike32]

I’ll echo the lubrication tip. I recently encountered the same difficulty in roller furling. It was definitely a lubrication fix. I checked the Seldén manual and bought the grease on line. You need to lube the top and bottom swivels. It made a huge difference. The disassembly of the bottom mechanism was a little tricky but mostly because I was working over water. The manual helped a lot with the procedure.

[pcmm]

As others have said, Halyard tension and forestay tension all play a factor in how well your furling works. Sight up your foil when the sail is unfurled and check to see how straight the forestay is. too much sag will make furling difficult. Also check halyard tension, too loose and you can get wraps which can wreck both the halyard and the stay. too much tension and it can be nearly impossible to furl also.

Number 1 is you should be able to furl the head-sail under normal conditions without needing to use a winch. If you can help it, never use a winch to furl. And as you are pulling, if the line suddenly gets harder to pull...STOP and ask yourself WHY it got harder.

I furl my 135 on my 40ft sailboat by hand 100% of the time. there is no winch installed for this purpose.

[odonnellryan]

Originally Posted by Jackg

My Pro-Furl on my 32' Seawind is a pain to roll up - even when dead into the wind it takes a fair amount of strength to haul in the furling line and roll up the sail. Does increasing or decreasing the halyard tension improve this?

I never furl the sail going INTO the wind - maybe a bit counterintuitive, but falling off the wind, as much as you can really, always helped. This way I can always furl the sail even if it is super overpowered, and it is a nice tight furl.