Roller furling unfurlable!

Hi All,

We have a Model 1 Harken roller furler on our E35/3. At the dock it furls & unfurls very easily. Under load when you most need to furl, it is almost impossible to do. I've understood the correct way to set things up is to tension backstay first then genoa halyard. I was told that loosening the backstay tension before furling might make it easier to furl. This makes only partial sense to me for a couple of reasons. One, I don't really feel like loosening backstay tension when the boat is being driven hard & is in steep seas as I don't imagine it is all that safe for the mast to do so. Second, I would think that with less tension, the forestay foil would look like a banana & be harder to roll onto the drum. I can see it would take tension off the bearings.

So here's what I've tried so far:

-I've spent 15 minutes with the hose on the drum to clean out any salt crystals.
-I've sprayed the drum as well as the halyard swivel with WD 40, then washed it out with water & re-sprayed with teflon spray all points in the manual.
-I've checked the angle of the leads for the furling line & all seems correct - comes off the drum @ 90 deg. & all blocks spin freely.
-The jib halyard is not wrapping around the head stay or hitting the mast.
-I've tried to get the torque tube off to see if I can remove the drum, but the screws are totally siezed. I've been working on them with liquid wrench & tapping them with a large screwdriver (using a hammer on the end) (haven't tried heat - wasn't too keen to do that). I understand that the foil can ride on the locking collar sometimes but I can't get the torque tube off to inspect it.
-I've changed the furling line as it was quite stiff.

Still no change when the furler is under load. A short while ago in heavy air, I tried with all my might to furl with the sail ragging and the boat almost head to wind - but it was impossible to roll in.

I'm wondering if the furler itself is marginal for the size of the boat??
I'm stumped & would appreciate any feedback.

Many thanks to all who reply.

Steve Gabbott
E35/3 Silent Dancer
Vancouver, BC

Sounds like the bearings need greased.

I'm not sure of the exact maintenance demands of your furler, but models I've used or fixed all needed partially disassembled and greased (not just teflon-sprayed).

I've been crew on other boats where the captain was baffled why his furler is so difficult, but he's simply never taken greased the bearing chases in the drum and in the top swivel. I'd give that a try for starters. If it means you need to drill out some corroded bolts, it's worth it.

FWIW, some furlers are built with sealed bearings, filled with grease. Others, like the Harken, have "open" bearing races that you routinely hose out and lube with MacLube.
The former works perfectly for years until sudden catastrophic failure from hidden salt intrusion/corosion, the later needs more constant flushing to maintain the Torlon bearings in good rolling order.

From all of the well-thought-out trouble-shooting applied already, it might be time to contact someone in the rigging business...
Strictly in the FWIW dept, the UKSails Northwest loft in Sydney is a huge dealer for Harken furlers -- you might want to contact them for suggestions of who to call in Vancouver for help/advice.

You might also want to submit your plight to the Spartalk forum at the Brion Toss website, http://www.briontoss.com/index.html. Brion's a sharp guy and was generous with his time at our rendezvous this year.

Here is the copied link for Spartalk. I have often found good information there. A search of their archives would seem to be in order, as well.
http://www.briontoss.com/spartalk/f...1&pp=20&sort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=30

And here is a great furling maint. article -
http://www.briontoss.com/education/archive/miscnov03.htm

Best,
Loren in PDX
(1996 Harken Mk 2 on a 34 footer)

gabosifat said:

I understand that the foil can ride on the locking collar sometimes

Click to expand...

This was the problem I encountered this year with the same furler on my E-34. Fortunately, being in fresh water I didn't have a problem with corrrosion when loosening the clamp.

Steve,

I have the same set up on the same boat. I have found that when I have this problem if I slack off on the genoa halyard things are easier. Don't know if that is your problem but it is simple to check.


Ray Rhode
S/Y Journey
E35-III, #189

Something is rotten for sure

First of all, you should not have to ease the backstsy to furl the genoa-and given that you have the seized bolts, I agree you may well have a bearing problem.

It MAY be of some help to ease the halyard and inch or 2 when you want to furl-and in fact, if your sail is not "fresh", this is a very good idea..The reason is that you most likely need a fair amount of halyard tension to keep the draft in the right place (forward of the midpoint)-and likely this is more load than is ideal for furling, and more load than you want to leave on the sail all the time-at the dock.

So, easing the halyard when you want to furl helps in several way: You make it easier on the gear while furling, when you leave the boat at the dock, you are not leaving a huge load on the sail/halyard-a good idea, and the best part is that when you go sailing the next time, you will be "forced" to apply the RIGHT amount of halyard for the conditions!!!It is a fact that the right halyard load for 5-10 knots is MUCH less than what you need for 18-20 knots!

The sail will last longer, the gear will last longer, and the furler should work better-all boats should really do this.

Having said that-I suggest this is not the whole issue-something else is probaly not right-and I would look at those bearings!

Cheers,
S

Roller furling unfurlable

Hi Steve,

There are a couple of things that I have run into that might make a difference. These are of course based somewhat on theory rather than hard fact, but I think they have worked for me.

If the forestay tension is too loose it will bow when it's under sail/wind pressure and make it harder to furl the sail. Loosening the halyard a little may help some.

If you put the wind behind you or on the aft quarter the furling will go a lot easier.

I hope this helps,

Bob Robertson
38-200 "Anticipation"

Excellent point!

Bob makes a very good point about the forestay...I did not think of it based on some of your commenst, Steve, but certainly a loose forestay WILL create these symptoms (will furl at dock, but not under sail).

If you are sailing in about 10 knots of TWS, upwind, and sheeted in appropriately, then if you stand at the bow and look up the headstay and line it up with the mast, you should see about 6" of sag if things are set up right for a cruiser. If it looks like 8-12", then this would be much worse in 15-20, and IS part of the problem.

Hope this helps!

s