Roller Furling Main Sail Problems

[KnuckleDragger]

From experience, here is something you might investigate. Your outhaul line will go through a block on the boom that slides in a T-slot in the boom. As you unfurl the sail the block slides back in the track towards the aft end of the boom. And as you furl the sail, the block slides forward toward the mast. All good so far. There will be a "stop" installed in the T-track in the boom somewhere towards the mast. (At least there is on my boat.) If the "stop" is installed too far aft, it will allow the furler to apply too much tension on the foot of the sail and not enough tension on the leach which will allow the leach to bag up when entering the slot in the mast and cause wrinkles. The same thing will happen when deploying the sail, again, causing too much tension on the foot relative to the tension on the leach.
Try moving the "stop" all the way towards the mast and see where the block wants to settle when the outhaul is under tension. The block will orient itself in a position that equallizes the pull on the foot and the leach throughout the process.

[Mark Stillwell]

"It has never worked very well, requiring me to get on deck and pull manually on the sail to get it all the way out. Recently it has gotten harder to deploy, so I took it down. The roller furling itself, works easily without the sail, with no obvious issues."

The "pull manually" and "works easily without the sail" suggests to me the problem is the outhaul car. The bearings could be worn and need replaced or just dirty or the track is dirty. This happened on our B331 and again on our B393.

Easy fix to try: wash the outhaul car and track with warm soapy water, rinse with clear water, let dry, spray bearings and track with McLube, let dry then give it a try.

[Vasco]

It's mostly the right technique. When I got my 393 ten years ago the folks at St. Barts in Charleston showed me how to furl and unfurl. It was my first boat with in-mast furling. In ten years I have jammed the sail once and that was because I got too cocky. Furling in all points of sail even in twenty knots. A contributing factor was that the sail was eight years old and a bit bagged out.

Special attention should be paid to furling the sail. It'll usually go in but if you don't do it right it wont come out.

[Pegleg Sands]

I think your question was how do you get the creases out /I would suggest DO NOT use an iron.I had a similar problem..Wrinkles from too much time in a bag in my case.I soaked em in clean salt water and laid them out on a lawn to dry,flipping them over at lunch.I did it for a week and rinsed them in clean fresh water when I was done.Then I took it out and used it.It worked great.

[rlettie4]

I know this thread is old but I wanted to share my experience with the roller furling main on my 2002 Beneteau 331. I was having an extremely difficult time unfurling the main unless I stood on the cabin top and pulled it out by hand about 2/3 of the way, then I could crank it for the remainder. I had read and tried all the tricks on multiple forums. Angle the boom above horizontal, loosen the main sheet, check the halyard tightness, wind off the starboard side, lube the furling drum, etc. Furling the sail in was always easy.

I was convinced my main was stretched and needed to be replaced since it was 17 years old, even though it looks great. By the way i did have a few small creases in the sail. Just for grins the other day I lubed the traveler on the boom that the unfurling line passes though with WD-40 and like magic I was able to easily unfurl the sail. I would never have guessed the the boom traveler could bind that much to prevent unfurling the sail. It seems so elementary but I have been struggling with this for the last two seasons.

Hopefully this will help someone. Thanks to all who have provided comments.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by rlettie4

I know this thread is old but I wanted to share my experience with the roller furling main on my 2002 Beneteau 331. I was having an extremely difficult time unfurling the main unless I stood on the cabin top and pulled it out by hand about 2/3 of the way, then I could crank it for the remainder. I had read and tried all the tricks on multiple forums. Angle the boom above horizontal, loosen the main sheet, check the halyard tightness, wind off the starboard side, lube the furling drum, etc. Furling the sail in was always easy.

I was convinced my main was stretched and needed to be replaced since it was 17 years old, even though it looks great. By the way i did have a few small creases in the sail. Just for grins the other day I lubed the traveler on the boom that the unfurling line passes though with WD-40 and like magic I was able to easily unfurl the sail. I would never have guessed the the boom traveler could bind that much to prevent unfurling the sail. It seems so elementary but I have been struggling with this for the last two seasons.

Hopefully this will help someone. Thanks to all who have provided comments.

Hi, rlettie4,

Welcome aboard CF!

If you had that good results with WD40 (which is actually bore cleaner for firearms and not a lubricant), there is a really good lubricant in your future: Mc Lube. It is a teflon spray, and we use it in our mainsail track. No connection with the company, but it is a necessary product on our boat.

Ann

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Hi, rlettie4,

Welcome aboard CF!

If you had that good results with WD40 (which is actually bore cleaner for firearms and not a lubricant), there is a really good lubricant in your future: Mc Lube. It is a teflon spray, and we use it in our mainsail track. No connection with the company, but it is a necessary product on our boat.

Ann

Even better than Mclube for bearing cars is one drop lube.

https://www.google.com/search?client...30.jZyDl1fmSpc

It’s not cheap, but it’s slick!

[mikedefieslife]

From what I have seen the vast majority of problems are due to a stretched sail giving it a bit of belly and leading to a poor furl.

Mine is a little stretched but still works well. My friends on a Beneteau 42 is terrible. Looking at the sail, it seems ok, but as soon as you start to furl it, you can see the excessive belly fabric doing it's best to get bunched up. No amount of pressure on the outhual, boom angle, or anything else, helps.

[Pete7]

Been there so bought a new sail. Yacht now goes forwards not sideways, sails upright and looks good.

Pete

[daletournier]

Heres a question, how many of you guys furl your inmast furler ddw? I do ,slowly bit by bit BUT theres alot of load on the system, not sure its a great idea.

Thoughts?

[scavendish]

Bearings missing on the furling drum due to plastic cracked drum...too much pre bend...
US Spars 2015 Ben Oceanis 41
need slight STARBOARD tack when furling/unfurling so there is no bend in sail as it comes off the foil from starboard on this rig

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by daletournier

Heres a question, how many of you guys furl your inmast furler ddw? I do ,slowly bit by bit BUT theres alot of load on the system, not sure its a great idea.

Thoughts?

I do it. I unload the sail by letting the boom right off and giving a lot of slack in the outhaul. The sail then lies against the spreaders but mine are very smooth and with plastic sliders in them so this doesn't cause problems.


This only works on stb tack for me.