Furling gear

[Keiron]

Quick query. I have an oldish plastimo (406) headsail reefing set up on my Hunter Duette. I am getting a problem when I try to reef in that the halyard tries to wrap round the forestay/extrusion. I haven't altered any of the set up before this started to happen. I have tried increasing halyard tension etc. I have given the system a good look over but all seems OK. I suspect there is too much friction in the top swivel and this is causing the problem. I have given it a good squirt with silicon spray but there seems to be no easy way of stripping the units to lubricate it and the ball races are not exposed. Any thoughts. Is this likely to be the problem? The swivel feels a bit stiffer than other units I have looked at but not very stiff, ie it does swivel fairly easily. Any help appreciated.

Keiron

 

[kieronriley]

have you changed the set up in any way, in my experience the most likely cause is the shackle on the top of the foil can be put on the wrong way around causing the exact problem you describe Kieron (of corse the correct spelling is ciaran)

 

[vyv_cox]

The usual answer is that the angle between the halyard and forestay is too acute. There are many ways of providing an angle of something like 30 degrees between the two, such as a collar above the swivel, a fairlead on the mast, etc. If the angle between your is acute it may be that some very minor change has been enough to start the problem off. Mine was OK for years and suddenly began to wrap for no obvious reason.

 

[JonJon]

Same thing happened with my Rotostay furler. On mine tho the top swivel bearings are easily accessible and a squirt of WD40 made all the difference even tho the bearing didnt feel too bad. My halyard lead is too acute and it doesnt take much to start the wrap when this is the case.

 

[BAtoo]

Have you got a halyard deflector? Ours became grooved & caught the halyard making it wrap.

 

[Keiron]

Thanks for all the useful advice. I'll have a another crack at it this weekend. I think I am getting a decent idea on what the problem may be.
Keiron