Furler snagging, difficult to furl / unfurl

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Lana

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I have just rigged up my new (old) boat and the furler is not happy. It turns for a bit and then stops, the drum can be manually turned a bit more (without undue force) but it stops again. It is very reluctant to work in either direction and I have not forced it. The boat was re-rigged by the previous owner but the mast had not been raised since (not possible as a shroud was too short) so nothing had been checked. It as a HA270 furler with its own halyard but I can't find any info so I am attaching photos hoping that someone might spot the deliberate error. Thanks



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Is it a collapsed bearing? Do you have shots of the top bobbin. Is it getting halyard wrap? Perhaps the path of the halyard needs altering.
One of our own suggests how to deal with it Halyard wraps (clicky)
 
Does the jib halyard go round a pulley at the top of the furling spar and back down to the cleat at the base? If so the problem is probably either at the top bearing, possibly split and the forestay has been trapped in the split or at the base bearing which has seized. Very similar to the furler on my first boat which had a Colne? Furler.
 
Thank you for your replies, very interesting, you have given me food for thought. The jib halyard does go round a pulley at the top of the furling spar and back down again and runs clean. Tomorrow I will untie the line and turn the furler by hand to see if it spins freely or not which will narrow the options. On my last two boats the furlers worked faultlessly so I have never paid them much attention until now.
 
It can be the drum bearing too low and binding on the forestay 'joint' .... my 609 has that problem making it stiff ... I need longer tie plates to raise the furling drum slightly. Way to check that is to raise the furler and drum and see if turns easily ... put back down again and turn - if it binds .. then may be problem.

It can be forestay itself if there is binding - it is trying to turn the stay as well .. or a strand of stay is broken inside the furler ..
 
Funny you should mention that. On my last two furlers (of similar small boat design with a halyard pulley attached to the furler) there was play and you could raise the drum up an inch or three. This one is completely solid, I can rotate it up to a point but cannot lift it at all.
 
Update: Today I untied and removed the furling line, tugged the jib sheet and the sail unfurled with great enthusiasm. The furling line diameter must be too large for the eye and I can easily change that. That was the good news. The bad is that when I furled the sail by hand (having disconnected the furling line) it was smooth and effortless BUT there was one click per revolution of the drum which, if it hadn't been for the snagging, I probably would not have noticed.

As has been the consensus something is catching something somewhere and the thought of the mast coming down of its own free will is a bit of a passion killer. I am using the boat like a Topper with mainsail only and of course I have tied the spare jib halyard to the pulpit but I'd rather not find out how effective that is.

The forestay feels tight enough but I am no expert, I tightened the bottle screw a few more turns but it made no difference to the clicking. The next time I visit the boat I will take the headsail down to see if that has any effect and let you know.

Many thanks to everyone for taking the time and trouble to help me.
 
one click per revolution of the drum
Click to expand...

I hope that is not a strand of the stay catching in the foil .... usually that would be accompanied by foil being more hard to turn as the strand end catches.
But it could be the bearing if furler drum has one ... one ball damaged .. etc.

Trying to think what else it could be ..... unless drum is brushing the eye of the stay ?
 
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