Colnebrook Furling System - HELP!!!

[CarlBennett]

I haven't used the furling thing in 5 years but it turns beautifully. That's not the problem. The problem is the foil on the headstay has separated about 5 feet from the top. The bottom 3/4 of it has slid down leaving a 7 inch gap when it's seated properly on the furler.

I can raise the jib and manually wind it round the stay when I'm done. As it is, the top bit won't turn when you try to furl or unfurl the sail, as it isn't connected to the rest of the foil.

So ideas, please?! If anyone has a foot of old Colnerook foil they don't have a use for near Woodbridge then I'd be happy to buy it. Anything to avoid shinning up the headstay!

 

[Dan Tribe]

I had an old Colnebrook furler laying on the mast rack at a Burnham boatyard, but as I'm no longer a customer there, it may have gone for scrap.
I'll nip in and have a quick look later this weekend. If it's still there you may have to grease the yard foreman's palm.

 

[Javelin]

I may have one laying at the bottom of our mast rack at Southwold, I'll check tomorrow, though we did have a clear out not so long ago so might have been skipped along with a bunch of plastimo furlers.
Some of them had the halyard on the spar and cleated at the drum, is that the same as yours?

 

[Egbod]

Hello. I have a piece of Colnebrook foil. Its width is 26.3mm and the front to back measurement is 34.7mm. The length is 998mm. One end has an insert for the top of the foil to fit around the forest. There is also a linking / joining insert to go between pieces of foil. Is this the same size as yours? I am in mid Essex

 

[CarlBennett]

I have a pot of grease all ready. For palms only, obviously. The furler is fine, it's just a foot of foil that I need! Do you remember..... the bit at the top - how does it fasten onto the forestay? Or doesn't it and it's only kept up by the foil? Similarly, is there a block up there I don't know about? I'm having a cup of tea right now, prior to first attempt at going up the mast. I tried prussic knots on a beam in the barn and ....just not doing it.

Hello. I have a piece of Colnebrook foil. Its width is 26.3mm and the front to back measurement is 34.7mm. The length is 998mm. One end has an insert for the top of the foil to fit around the forest. There is also a linking / joining insert to go between pieces of foil. Is this the same size as yours? I am in mid Essex

It sounds very much like the same stuff. In mine there is an enclosed tube for the forestay and a grooved outer tube for the sail.

I may have one laying at the bottom of our mast rack at Southwold, I'll check tomorrow, though we did have a clear out not so long ago so might have been skipped along with a bunch of plastimo furlers.
Some of them had the halyard on the spar and cleated at the drum, is that the same as yours?

This one has the halyard on the spar, and some sort of block arrangement at the top of the stay, but I gave up trying to get up there today - every time I try it the wind gusts and I am not getting killed just to fix this!

 

[Egbod]

I cannot think how a gap can just arrive. There is usually some uncovered wire at the top. Perhaps a join has become loose and part of the foil has moved upwards. Maybe the top part can be slid down and the joint re-fixed. What size of boat is this on?

 

[Javelin]

Having another think on this and Egbod is right, there is something wrong with the top section.

Is it possible to take a couple of photos as I think we're all trying to second guess exactly whats wrong.

 

[CarlBennett]

I'm coming to think that too. I've never used the furling jib in five years. In fact, the boat's been in restoration (and being ignored) for a lot of that time so I have zero knowledge of how the rig should look. The foil, with a lumpy attachment at the top of it, goes all the way to the mast. Working down from there (this is on a 26 foot Folkboat) there is a section of foil then a 6 inch gap, then two joined sections of foil. In the upper one I can see two empty holes in the foil, which correspond to two full holes in the joined sections. Then the furler, which is fine. If I pull the two joined sections down they engage with the furler. The rig won't furl by just jamming the whole lot together, putting the sail up and turning it - it jams because the top bit doesn't turn, held together by just the sail. The top section of foil with the lumpy thing turns easily on its own but I can't slide it downwards by looping a halyard round it - I spent half an hour yesterday trying.

I think somehow it has got jammed at the top of the forestay. Now I need a solution that doesn't involve climbing the mast. Sailing to Mistly might be it, then waiting for low tide! The solution I can see easily is putting a short 6 inch section of foil in from the bottom, jamming the whole thing together that way.

 

[CarlBennett]

I cannot think how a gap can just arrive. There is usually some uncovered wire at the top. Perhaps a join has become loose and part of the foil has moved upwards. Maybe the top part can be slid down and the joint re-fixed. What size of boat is this on?

I think
so too. 26 foot Folkboat.

 

[CarlBennett]

Well, fixed it. It meant a trip up the mast. There were two ten foot foils, then a gap of about 7 inches on the forestay, then another shorter foil with an integral block on the far (obviously...) end of that. The halyard runs from the furler to the integral block on the foil as a circular, unbroken line.

It actually works as an arrangement, save for the fact the old mast halyard tends to get in the way, snags on the integral block it should be nowhere near and happily wraps itself around the foil, jamming everything up.

The solution seems to be to either keep a lot of tension on the redundant halyard or cut it, but as it runs down inside the mast I really don't want to do that, in case. In case of what, I don't know, but in case.

For anyone with a Colnebrook (and the furler, even 30 years old, runs very smoothly indeed when the not-jib spare halyard isn't wrapped around it) the halyward is an unbroken line running from the furler to the block at the end of the foils and back down again. Not a normal halyard you tie off somewhere.

It's really important!!