E30+ Halyard Wrap Solution

[tclark2253]

I've had trouble recently with furling the jib. I lowered halyard and found a big "dent' or "twist" in the halyard.
Does anyone know why this might have started only recently?
Does anyone have a solution?
I considered cutting about a foot off the halyard, crimping new nico eye, and making some sort of pennant from shackle to halyard to get a better angle to mast.

Thank you for any feedback.

 

[Afrakes]

Halyard Restrainer

You need to install one of these on your mast. Also make sure that the upper swivel is properly lubricated and the halyard tension is correct.

 

[Christian Williams]

As Al says, your upper furler is rotating around the stay when you furl the sail. that's why the wire is spiraled.

If the angle from the halyard to the mast is big, say 45 degrees, the top bearing is prevented from wrapping.

But for boats where the angle is narrow, the angle needs to be increased as Al describes. .

Not a big deal, but fix it soon so you don;t get a problem wrap.

 

[supersailor]

I just replaced the upper swivel on my furler. It is a Harken Series 11. It was swiveling perfectly at deck level with no load on it. with the sail attached and a little load on it it swiveled in one direction and ratcheted in the other. No furling. Just a wrapped up halyard. The last time it did it was of Port Townsend in 30+ knots of wind. The furler wouldn't furl and I couldn't haul the flogging monster of a jib through the foil. The solution was to get a short line through the clew and the spinnaker bale and tie it off. Then I untied the sheets and the short line. Then the boat was spun in 360's until it was furled. That was the tightest furl I've ever had.

When the swivel started doing this, some McLube would get working again. After wile, things deteriorated again. That 1987 swivel was just plane worn out. There are supposed to be no parts available for the Mark 1 and Mark11 Harkins, but I was able to get a brand new one in the original box for $150 on EBAY. It just takes some sleuthing.

 

[Afrakes]

Restrainer

I have a Selden 200S Furlex furler on the E-28. The installation kit I received with the unit included the restrainer. Mine is located 9" below the pin for the genoa halyard sheave. As Christian pointed out the angle of the furler to the mast is critical. On my former 73' E-27 I had no problems with halyard wrap the first season I owned the boat. The second season, with the original Hood furler, I ran into wrap problems. The age of the furler probably had something to do with the difficulties. I installed a restrainer the next season and had no further problems. I suggest referencing the installation instructions for your furler to see what their recommendations are. Whatever the angle you have I think installing a restrainer would be appropriate. Especially if you have wire halyards. The same can happen with rope halyards as well.

 

[u079721]

We too had this problem on our 38 when we purchased it, and the PO had already replace one halyard he had ruined with a wrap.

We were going to see about installing a halyard restrainer, but as a temp measure we instead released the tack and hoisted the top swivel all the way to the top, backed off about two inches, and then fastened the tack of the sail to the bottom drum with a few wraps of 1/4" line as a pendant. After pulling the halyard taught it worked just fine, and the upper swivel couldn't wrap because it didn't have enough spare halyard to get around the stay. This worked so well we never changed it for ten years, and never had problems with wrapping again. It did place the sail about 6" higher than before, so I suppose we were increasing weight aloft, but I could live with the trade off.

 

[tclark2253]

Fixed

Thanks to everyone, the issue has been fixed.