E32-200 Roller Furling line routing

We just bought a E32-200 and are getting accustomed to sailing her. There is a great amount of pressure on the furling line while Furling the jib to reef it or haul it even when heading into the wind. The jib furling line is brought aft to a cam cleat a few inches forward and below the most aft port side winch. In this position using the winch means the line travels at a steep angle down through the cleat before heading forward putting a lot of upward pressure on the cleat while hauling the line.

This seems an unnatural configuration. Is this standard?

Again. Thanks for all the responses. It seems our boat was sitting for a long time and manually working the roller furler at the slip to loosen some of the corrosion up to make it easier to pull in. Its still not as easy as I would think it should be so a dis-assembly and cleaning with a possible bearing replacement may be in order.

After a good cleaning it works like a champ. its actually fairly easy to furl the jib now. Boat must have been sitting much more than we thought.

32-200 Furler

Welcome to the forum! Our Furler line is routed just like yours. We put a stanchion block aft of the winch to ease furling. You may have to head up and ease the sheet to reef the jib. This enables you to use the cam cleet.
Also the stanchion block eliminates the line rubbing on the cockpit combing.
Rick

I never use a winch. Ease tension on sheet first, luff if necessary. Furlers not designed for rolling up under load. Sent iphone.

I never use a winch. Ease tension on sheet first, luff if necessary. Furlers not designed for rolling up under load.

Click to expand...

FWIW, the only time I ever bought a furler, over 20 years ago, I asked Harken about using a winch. They said that it is not a problem as far as furling goes, BUT if the halyard is wrapped, or some other restraint, you will twist the foil.

I very occasionally have used a winch in high winds to get the first few of turns. You have to be careful.

I would check with the manufacturer to be safe.

Yeah, one other issue is that if you crank the line in hard, the line can lay up on the drum with overlaps that don't want to unfurl later.

Check the furling-line lead to the drum from the deck. Sometimes it's a compromise angle because of gear up there, but it should be as fair as you can make it.

I treat my Schaefer furler like it was old. It's probably original equipment, and they're expensive to replace.

They should work easily by hand in light air. If not, something's wrong.

Photo

A photo would be helpful.

Also what is the make of the roller furling?

Is it hard to unfurl and refurl at the dock?

Guy

Thanks everyone for the responses.
It's not easy to furl even in the slip and we are definitely turning into the wind whenever we try to furl it while underway.
The Harken manual indicates you should never need to use a winch and cautions against using one.
From the responses you all have provided it seems unusual to require this much force to furl so I guess this means its time to look for a problem in the furler itself.

Please post a cell phone photo of the drum and the line leading to it, and give us the brand of furler.

To post photos here:

-Start a New Message and scroll down below the message pane to Manage Attachments.

--Click Add Files. Click Choose File.

--Choose File opens the contents of your computer. Locate the photo required and open it.

--Click Upload.

--You can adjust the placement of the photo in the message body as if it were a block of type.

Fuller

mjn said:

We just bought a E32-200 and are getting accustomed to sailing her. There is a great amount of pressure on the furling line while Furling the jib to reef it or haul it even when heading into the wind. The jib furling line is brought aft to a cam cleat a few inches forward and below the most aft port side winch. In this position using the winch means the line travels at a steep angle down through the cleat before heading forward putting a lot of upward pressure on the cleat while hauling the line.

This seems an unnatural configuration. Is this standard?

Click to expand...

Check to be sure you do not have a wrap at the top somewhere. Dan Callen Ericson 32-3 Andiamo

Furling Blues

View attachment 14290

I am hoping you will be able to expand these photos from my files to more clearly see the furling line run on my 32-200. The first picture shows the line leaving the drum at a 90 degree angle to a swiveling fairlead mounted on the bow pulpit stantion. It's important to get a straight run into and out of the drum. I use blocks on the bases of the stantions for the rest of the line's run aft. The second photo shows the cockpit access to the furling line. Frankly, in order not to put too much pressure on the jam cleat I just grab the line closer to the gate (in front of the said cleat) and haul away. Remember to put some pressure on the appropriate sheet to prevent a runaway when you are pulling the sail in. Likewise don't let the furling line flyaway when you are pulling it out. I realize this flyaway stuff is not your problem right now.) If I were a gambling man (what sailor isn't?) I would bet that Capt. Dan is on to something. You may well have a wrap at the top of a sail. That is, the halyard has gotten wrapped around the forestay. You may need to install a pennant to keep the two separate.

Anyway, welcome to the forum. Fair winds and all that.

Larry Lee
Annabel Lee E 32-200
Savannah, GA

head stay tension

The time I had a halyard wrap, furling wasn't difficult, it was impossible. Applying enough tension to overpower a wrap would have damaged the head stay foil.

Another area to look at is head stay tension. if there is too little tension, the stay and foil will have a bow. This makes furling difficult and irregular. The furling will go easy-hard-easy-hard every revolution as you twist and bend the aluminum foil. To test this out, I agree with previous posters - test it in parts. Drop your foresail and hand rotate the drum. If this is difficult, it's not a wrap, it's either a problem with the drum/furler or the headstay tension.

Here are some photos.

Here's my setup, for another option. But the problem is more likely at the forestay end.

(I don't know why the program sometimes loads photos as large attachments, rather than the smaller expandable version)

OK, now after I resized the attachment for comparison, the program made them both expandable. The huge "attachment" version is gone)