Furler Problems

[simonhayes]

My Furlex 200 furler has been problematic for a while now, with both furling and unfurling being difficult and bind ups common, but now it seems to have completely siezed. I have tried all the usual adjustment of halyard tension/ back-stay tension etc and not seem to make any progress. I believe I have a mechanical issue with the Furlex 200 furler but not sure which bit to go after..

As it stands currently, I can, with a lot of effort and winding/unwinding, get the genoa 3/4 wound in but after that, it seems not to move any further. Pulling the line further just seems to results in the halyard winding around the forestay and then springing back. Thinking this was a problem with the Halyard swivel, I have taken the sail down and inspected the swivel and found it to turn smoothly (although the barrel casing seemed little loose) I did spray some lube into the exposed bearings. Similarly, with no sail attached, I can wind and unwind the furling line on to the drum ok (although it is not very smooth) .

As I have said many times, I do sail in fairly windy condition here on the sf bay which means the system is subject to quite a lot of load. It also makes it doubly important that it works when I need to reef...

Any ideas ?

[Ron]

Tony's changed the rig a few times. I think mine was the first with a 1 foot flexible link at the top of the forestay (to allow the drum to sit on the large "U" shape at the forward bottom of the mast. I'm not sure how many boats have this arrangement, because he's taken it off and put it back on several times. I thought that the angle and distance on the halyard between the upper swivel and mast sheeve would allow the halyard to wrap on the head stay, so I asked him to add an eye strap on the front of the mast about 6 inches below the sheeve. By running the halyard thru this eye, both the angle and spacing are markedly improved and totally eliminates any chance of the halyard wrapping. I've done this before on other boats as well. There's a picture below showing the top of my rig. Notice the link and angle of the halyard after it has been run thru the eye strap.

Does your boat have the link? Do you have one of these eyestraps on your mast? Is the angle such that the halyard can easily wrap when furling the sail. Something like 5 or maybe 10 degrees (between the forestay and halyard) and over a foot of free line will just about allow that to happen. If the geometry of the rig looks decent, then I'd be looking at the upper swivel and maybe the bearings on the drum too. The drum can be rebuilt, but you may have to replace the one at the top. Someone else had this problem and that fixed it. I'm assuming that the halyard is neither too loose or too tight.

[simonhayes]

Ron,

Thanks for the quick response

Does your boat have the link?

No - it does not.. I can see how that would be useful as I have to detach the forestay completely when I take the mast down and trailer the boat

Do you have one of these eyestraps on your mast?

No.. how is this fitted to the mast ?

Is the angle such that the halyard can easily wrap when furling the sail. Something like 5 or maybe 10 degrees (between the forestay and halyard) and over a foot of free line will just about allow that to happen.

Well.. that describes the situation pretty well. Based on the fact that it is wrapping I would say the geometry is bad. Interestingly. I had actually connected about a foot of line to the tack to raise the foot of the sail ( in order to improve visibility and reduce the sail catching on the pulpit ) and , while I had issues with the tack not unfurling fully, I didn't have any halyard wrap issues so I should look at getting an eyestrap

.... I'd be looking at the ...... bearings on the drum too. The drum can be rebuilt,

I think the bearing on the lower unit are not in great shape. Is this a professional job or can you do it yourself ?

Someone else had this problem and that fixed it.

Love to hear if others have had a similar issue and fixed it

I'm assuming that the halyard is neither too loose or too tight.

I have tried both and everything in between - doesn't make much difference

Thanks

[Ron]

Simon -

The eyestrap is made specifically for this application and is mounted on the front of the mast, using either screws thru tapped holes, or rivets. 1/4 inch stainless rivets would be stronger. Its got to be around 6 inches, maybe a drop more, below the jib halyard sheeve exit. That's enough to significanlty change the angle between the halyard and forestay. Yours must be nearly parallel, and that itself could cause some of the problems. But the furler drum bearings and upper swivel could contribute as well.

My boat is down in FL now and we're in NJ, so this is from memory. I don't have a better picture either.

I wonder how many other boats have this eye strap? There's at least one more because there is a post in this section concerning some chafing caused by the strap. Note that this is possible and you should monitor what's happening up there. Some tape or a dremel to smooth it out could help.

I specifically asked Tony to put in on my boat when I saw the angles. But my flexible link at the top of the stay may have caused a change in the geometry.

[trashpad]

I had the same thing but on my Screacher. The upper swivel would bind up when I would wind in the sail. I inspected the swivel several time but is would spin free in my hands. The last time I checked it I put a bit of load on it and I could hear metal on metal. I called the maker and they Fedexed me a new one for free. I just had to send the old one back so they could take it apart and see what happened. After that my Screacher problems went away.

[simonhayes]

Since I need to do some more work to fit an eye-strap, I decided to hoist the genoa higher in the track by adding about a foot of line to the tack. This had the effect of reducing the length of halyard at the head to a few inches and changed the angle which pretty much stopped the halyard wrap problem. It also has the benefit of improving forward visibility under the sail.

I liberally lubed the bearings on the upper swivel and , before hoisting, I tightened the back stay significantly (and hence forestay to maintain rigidity) . I put only a minimum of tension on the halyard. All of this seem to fix the problem as I was able to unfurl and furl several time with a minimum of effort. I later "road tested" it, going out in 25-30kts and had to reef and furl in those conditions, all without a hitch ( thankfully !)

I would prefer to add an eyestrap but need to get one and will look to add it the next time I haul the boat

thanks

- Simon

[Tri’d n Sail’d]

11 years later... similar problems... We were using our screecher halyard for our oversized genoa, and this was working just fine (except no visibility below it). That genoa needs repairs and we are now using the original Bierig (it is nice having visibility below the sail) and it is on the proper genoa halyard now. Our problems are now identical to Simon's. We can unfurl, but when furling the halyard wraps around the forestay. I get the sail in but only after significant (and violent) back-and-forth tugging at the furler while first mate takes in the slack I slowly create. I will try to duplicate his latest fix and bring the head higher in the rig to reduce exposed halyard. I tried to tighten the fore and back stays by tightening the back stay but that brought my mainsail down completely on the bimini (some damage). Any ideas would be helpful.

[Ron]

Jim -

You've got to have a reasonable angle on the halyard between the forestay and mast where it goes thru the sheave. If it is almost parallel to the forestay it could easily wrap around it. I added an eye about one foot below the sheave to increase the angle. See photo below.

[Ron]

Woops - Photo did not work. Not sure why. We maybe ran out of room. The photo showed the eye fastened near the forward top of the mast, about 1 foot below the halyard exit. It's not a simple eye - it's about 1 inch thick and it's made to change the direction of a line.

I'll try to figure out why it won't take any more atachments.

[Tri’d n Sail’d]

For posterity... Two inches! That was the distance I needed to move the genoa up with the halyard to stop the upper swivel from turning and thereby allowing the halyard to wrap around the forestay. Essentially the upper swivel needs to be at the apex of the triangle (forestay and mast) so there is not enough area to allow the swivel tab (that halyard is attached to) to move more than a few degrees.

While sailing last night the wind died to 2-3 knots so we kept the genoa out, released the tack of the sail from the bottom connection at the furler and raised it a couple inches. Then re-tied the spacer line to the tack. With the upper swivel held by the vertex of the mast/forestay the genoa furled very nicely.