Advice on roller furler (or replacement)

[VinnyVincent]

This is my first sail boat with a roller furling head sail.

So far it seems like more of a hassle than it's worth;
It's never rolled 100% and used to take great force(2 people) to get it to roll/unroll.
Then the shackle for my head stay came loose and I believe it was related to the furler not working correctly.

Now the thing recently has jammed up entirely. The sail will unroll about 1/4 of the way and then jam. It seems like it is binding somewhere up top, but I can't see anything...whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be a problem with the roller itself.


Anyway's I kind of like sailing with it only 1/4 of the way out. A lot of days here are heavier wind and it's nice to have a smaller sail that's easier to manage.

Anyhow what are my options here? I was thinking:

- Sell the sail and the furler(bought in 2006 according to receipts), use the money to get a 95% jib (used maybe) that is operated by a halyard.

- Keep sailing with it as-is only 1/4 of the way out. Is this bad for it?

- Figure out how to fix the roller, which I'm already more frustrated with and also use a sail which seems to be too large for most day's I have used it on.


What all would be involved in changing out the roller and just using a halyard?

[s/v Beth]

The roller furler comes off easy enough, exposing your standing rigging. then just change your jib to a hank- on. (which, if you have a sewing machine, can do yourself pretty easy) and remember to take off the exposure cloth. Viola, change done.
The roller furler is probably binding on the top. I would look up there first.
" Sell the sail and the furler(bought in 2006 according to receipts), use the money to get a 95% jib (used maybe) that is operated by a halyard."
Hmmm. Maybe we should back up and ask-
How big a boat do you have?
Do you know that all roller furlering jibs have halyards?
Have you brought down the jib while you have owned the boat?
Yeah, lets start there.

[VinnyVincent]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Hmmm. Maybe we should back up and ask-
How big a boat do you have?
Do you know that all roller furlering jibs have halyards?
Have you brought down the jib while you have owned the boat?
Yeah, lets start there.

This is my first cruiser I've ever even been on and I am used to sailing a beach catamaran(which did not have a furler), so the difference in rigging is taking a little getting used to. It's a 28ft monohull.

I did not realize you can remove it without taking the headstay down. I suppose I'll need to take a look and see how it comes off...there appears to be some kind of aluminum sleeve around the head stay. I'm not sure how to get that off.

[Cheechako]

It sounds like you need A) the appropriate size headsail, B) A furler setup review or furler that works properly.
How big is the headsail, you like it 1/4 unfurled? Are you sure you just aren't used to sailing heeled? or is the Headsail huge? Is there a mechanism to keep the halyard from wrapping up?
On that boat a hank on sail will be fine, but realize.. the headsail you have will always bee all the way up..... so if you like it 1/4 exposed now it wil be 100% exposed... is it too big?

[Time2Go]

First thing I'd do would be to remove the sail from the Furler.
there has got to be a Halyard, so release it and pull the sail down
thru the foil on the headstay. Then see how the furler works with no sail
Should help you determine what the issue is. I would not go back to Hank
On's especially given that you allready have a furler.
You should inspect the Headstay anyway. I had a friend that
ignored a furler issue and just muscled the sail in and out, One day
the stay parted just above the furler drum. The drum was binding a bit
and eventually destroyed the stay. Very Lucky it was a very very
light wind day and my buddy had enough time to grab the spare halyard
and bring it forward to act as a stay.

[Cheechako]

Got a pic of your furler drum? you may have an old cheap POS furler that never did work right.....

[barnakiel]

You may have had a wrap. This may cause the wire to actually come undone. Proceede cautiously because you may pull the whole rig down now.

Properly set up and tuned furler is bang easy to furl and unfurl.

Wraps are caused by bad halyard exit / angle / placement.

Send someone up the mast to investigate.

Pictures?

b.

[s/v Beth]

Looks like you are getting some solid advice now. Get the head sail down and see what you got.

[chris95040]

What you NEED to do is read the manual for the furler you have. Google it. My furler is ancient but I was able to find manuals online.

The basic idea is you are trading what's wound up - either the sail is wound up, or the spool of line in the drum at the furler's base is wound up. Unwinding one winds the other. So you "unwind" the sail, and it "winds up" the furler line. Or vice versa. Some furlers don't even coil up the rope inside the drum at it's base, it just goes in one end and out another, that's even simpler.

I'd start by learning how to drop the sail. Remove it from the furler. That'll make things a lot simpler. Now does the furler rotate freely?

The sail is furled by pulling the control line that is wrapped at the base of the furler. This causes that whole aluminum extrusion (the "foil") that runs up your forestay to spin. This wraps the sail around the aluminum extrusion. With no sail attached, this should be pretty easy to spin.

You probably have some sort of 2-end swivel that goes between the head of the sail and the halyard - the halyard can't be directly attached to the sail because as you furled the sail it would be trying to wind up your halyard as well. That wouldn't work. The swivel piece lets the halyard attachment point, the sail attachment point, and the foil all rotate independently.

Is the furler line inside the drum a tangled mess? Undo the whole thing and start over. With no sail attached, you want the thing to be in the "unfurled" configuration - meaning, the rope is wound, the sail is "unwound" (it's not even there!). How much do you wind? You want enough in that drum so that you'll be able to furl the whole length of sail before you run out of rope, but not so much that the drum binds up because its full of rope it doesn't need.

RTFM!

[pete33458]

Yeah, I would say it definitely should not take 2 people to unfurl it, and if you are furling properly (by heading off and blanketing the jib with the main, allowing you to coild the line on the drum cleanly), it really should come in with about a 1/2 person effort (normal conditions). When you're trying to unfurl it now, is that under sail or at the dock? As everyone else has said, drop the sail and deal with the performance of the furler by itself first.

Furling headsails are not essential, but in coastal sailing they are a major convenience with little downside. My opinion only, of course. Pete

[VinnyVincent]

Thanks guys I will pull it down and report back with pics

Trouble is, the sail runs up a track inside the aluminum sleeve that's wrapped around the head stay. If I can't unroll it, how do I drop it?

[pete33458]

Once you release the halyard you should be able to work the sail down, just keep unwrapping and pulling. Unless the bolt rope is jammed, which really should never happen if the halyard is tensioned. pete

[Stu Jackson]

No one asked yet: what brand of furler?

[sonofasonofasailer456]

Sounds like your halyard fitting is not spinning freely, and wrapping the halyard around the forestay, better yet, is the head of the sail and halyard attached to the head fitting? Sounds like you need to go up the mast or someone that knows what to look for and inspect that.

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[sonofasonofasailer456]

I have roller reefing on my Bristol 27 and my Bristol 35, makes live do much easier, you need to find out whether you have roller reefing or roller furling. They are not the same, furling just wraps the sail for stowage when not in use, this is a lighter duty unit, and roller reefing you use to reef the sail and stow the sail.

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