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Halyard wrap

We are definitely learning...

new challenge. We noticed the genoa seemed really tight when bringing it in. A little research and an evaluation with our binoculars we seemed to have a halyard wrap.

Any advice on how to approach this? It’s an older profurl.

as always, thanks in advance

Shannon
 

Afrakes

Sustaining Member
Restrainer

Do you have a halyard restrainer on the mast? If not, I would recommend getting one installed. Sometimes too much tension of the halyard will cause this.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
If the jib halyard wraps around the forestay when furling/unfurling the issue is usually the angle between the jib head and the mast sheave.

The installation needs to provide an angle sufficient that wrap doesnʻt occur. Iʻm guessing 30 degrees or so. When hoisted, does the visible halyard seem nearly parallel the forestay up there? If so, hmmmm.

A common solution is a fitting on the mast (Harken calls it a halyard restrainer) to increase the halyard/swivel angle.

Do deal with this, since a headsail that wonʻt come down can be a major problem.
 
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Afrakes

Sustaining Member
Halyard Angle

Christian is dead on about the angle of the halyard to the foil. Selden recommends 5 to 10 degrees. Don't know about others.
 

Afrakes

Sustaining Member
Restrainer II

This is the restrainer I have on my mast. Selden calls them halyard leads.
 

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Halyard wasn’t tight

One of the local experts took a look and put halyard wasn’t tight. A couple of quick adjustments and we are good to go. Lesson learned.

Shannon
 
Thanks again.

This is the restrainer I have on my mast. Selden calls them halyard leads.

We were out yesterday and it worked perfectly, but will look at installing a halyard lead when as part of our (growing) list of things to do. Someone once said you don't know really know your boat until you have touched every inch of it. I am thinking this happens pretty quickly for new owners.

Shannon
 

u079721

Contributing Partner
I've mentioned this before, but there is a far more simple way to fix this issue than a halyard retainer. And that's to just raise the sail till the top swivel is just below full hoist. At that position there is not enough free halyard to allow any wraps to form. To get that full hoist you just need to raise the tack of the sail with a short pendant of probably just 4 to 8 inches or so - you find the right length by trial and error under full halyard tension. I had halyard wrap when I first bought Rag Doll, and needed a quick solution. Putting in a 6" pendant of 1/4" line was all it took. It worked so well that we never bothered to change anything. It does put the sail up a bit higher than it needs to be, but heck it's only 6".
 

Joliba

1988 E38-200 Contributing Member
I believe this can also be accomplished with a short pennant at the head instead of the tack. That way the sail position is unchanged.
Mike Jacker
 

u079721

Contributing Partner
I believe this can also be accomplished with a short pennant at the head instead of the tack. That way the sail position is unchanged.
Mike Jacker

Give it a try, but it would sure seem as if all that would do if give you pendant wrap instead of halyard wrap.
 

markvone

Sustaining Member
We were out yesterday and it worked perfectly, but will look at installing a halyard lead when as part of our (growing) list of things to do. Someone once said you don't know really know your boat until you have touched every inch of it. I am thinking this happens pretty quickly for new owners.

Shannon

Shannon,

If you didn't change anything with the sail or halyard than it's hard to believe the PO had problems with halyard wraps with your current setup and just lived with it. My near full hoist jib and genoa work fine with no restrainer and the head of the sail up near the top of the foil. Old (original?) but smooth Harken swivel and furler. I do have a low stretch dyneema halyard and low stretch laminate headsails which help keep things tight with no slack.

You can see from the picture that using a restrainer to change the halyard angle down to about where my stay attaches to the mast would give much more of a side angle to the upper half of the upper swivel, holding it and preventing a wrap and forcing the lower half to rotate. I'd avoid anything extra if your current setup continues to work for you.

Mark
 

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footrope

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
I believe this can also be accomplished with a short pennant at the head instead of the tack. That way the sail position is unchanged.
Mike Jacker

Mike is correct, a pendant at the head of the jib works fine. The pendant is attached to the sail and the swivel. That allows the swivel to be raised high enough by the halyard that the halyard can't wrap. I used a head pendant for years on my old jib, 1/4" Amsteel. It is easy to get the correct pendant length by tying it at the tack. The pendant can be used at either place, but it must be attached to the sail, not to the halyard.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
And as to maintenance...

We are supposed to inspect and clean furling systems periodically. This probably gets skipped as often as we skip inspecting and cleaning our equally expensive winches.

It's worth mentioning because problems with a roller furler can be difficult to solve, even at the dock. A sail that won't come down --well, hmmm.

I have to remind myself that halyard tension on the furler genoa is not for moving the draft, as it is on a mainsail. The luff is not to be cranked hard.

I also have to remind myself that although it's a pain, the genoa needs to come down periodically. It is educational to do that alone, with an internal jib halyard led to the cockpit. And it teaches the procedures and time required should a storm line be approaching.

Harken's full PDF is here, and makes good reading: https://www.harken.com/uploadedfiles/Product_Support/PDF/4419.pdf

harken.jpg
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I never experienced jib halyard wrap, but I faithfully installed the guide, as per the Furlex instructions. And this distance was factored into the measurements used to make the genoa. If I picture this correctly, adding a pendant up here would drop the foot of the sail into the lifelines. ? Maybe I'm confused, but apparently not something that I have to worry about.

However, I have had a few instances of spinnaker-halyard wrap. This season, I picked-up this short "crane" attachment that is supposed to go on a Catalina 34. We'll see if that solves the problem.

Might not install it quite as far out as shown - was boggling it a bit while working the camera. (What's missing in this photo is the furler/forestay, which goes on the empty inner toggle.)

IMG_2170.jpg
 
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