Furling Line

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

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The boat has a Furlex furling system. The line gets jammed inside the drum and consequently it canot be pulled to reef the genoa; (and having the genoa fully out, sailing at night singlehanded when squals approaching, is not fun).

I am thinking of replacesing the line with a more suitable rope type/make, with less friction. What type of rope is the best for furlers?
 
We had a similar problem so I changed the 10mm polyester line to 8mm polyester clad dyneema. No further problems but gloves are advisable in lively conditions.
 
The common solution around here, which works really well, is to remove the core from the front half of the line. It then flattens like webbing.

I use webbing in one of my furlers. The splice is weird, but it works GREAT. Much better than line. Lies down flat and resists jamming by the line sinking through the pile.
 
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
The boat has a Furlex furling system. The line gets jammed inside the drum and consequently it canot be pulled to reef the genoa; (and having the genoa fully out, sailing at night singlehanded when squals approaching, is not fun).

I am thinking of replacesing the line with a more suitable rope type/make, with less friction. What type of rope is the best for furlers?
Click to expand...

Sounds like the line is too large... Chanw for Dyneema... I
We use 8mm Dyneema on our 47 foot masthead rig..
 
Thanks to all for the replies; it appears that Dyneema is the way forward with either spliced to polyester for easy handling or gloves. I like the suggestion to remove the core of the Dyneema so to behave like webbing and also the Liros 9/6 suggestion.
 
Some strange double think going on in this thread.
Use dyneema.
Take the core out.

If you don't need the strength or low stretch of dyneema, why not use something cheaper and take the core out?
My top tip is to make sure there's only the right amount of rope on the drum. When the sail is tightly furled, with just one turn of the sheets around it, the drum can be completely empty.
How strong does the line need to be?
 
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
Thanks to all for the replies; it appears that Dyneema is the way forward with either spliced to polyester for easy handling or gloves. I like the suggestion to remove the core of the Dyneema so to behave like webbing and also the Liros 9/6 suggestion.
Click to expand...

This is the stuff I use - 5mm, but mainly cos it was free off a job used once, prob cheaper options around just as up to the job. 12 strand single is easy to splice so if you do go for dyneema get extra to make soft shackles/strops etc.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Marlow-D...hash=item2a7b5090c9:m:mLx-ILSdwX1drerXTysng7w


Main thought process was worrying about the line parting in a blow after days on end furled - the dyneema basically doesn't stretch so no movement for chafe and crazy strong and chafe resistant anyway so you'll see a big mess long before it will ever break.

Q3bvmog.png



 
I had similar problems and although the nature of the line is important so is the lead to the drum. I fiddled about until the lead was at right angles to the centre of the drum axis. This greatly helped the clean layering/winding of the line.
 
A few years back we were encountering the same problem as the OP. We had 8mm line on the drum at that point and no matter how carefully we tensioned it as we unfurled the sail, it still jammed... Fiddled with the feed angle and that improved things a bit but still getting jams. So I replaced the line with normal 6mm braided polyester line. No problems since then, the line has lasted 6 years and seen us through some quite exciting winds, when we’ve had to use the winch to reef the foresail.
So whilst dyneema lines will no doubt do the job, on our 40 foot boat with a 140% genoa we’ve not found the need to move over from polyester.
 
I agree that there is no need for the furling line to be able to withstand huge loadings, so no need to use Dyneema for stenght, but perhaps Dyneema works well as a furling line because it is slippery enough to overcome jamming in the drum.
 
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC said:
I agree that there is no need for the furling line to be able to withstand huge loadings, so no need to use Dyneema for stenght, but perhaps Dyneema works well as a furling line because it is slippery enough to overcome jamming in the drum.
Click to expand...

Plus in an extended blow you're not anywhere near so worried about some hidden chafe, if that line goes bang at 3am it's really not a lot of fun....
 
GHA said:
This is the stuff I use - 5mm, but mainly cos it was free off a job used once, prob cheaper options around just as up to the job. 12 strand single is easy to splice so if you do go for dyneema get extra to make soft shackles/strops etc.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Marlow-D...hash=item2a7b5090c9:m:mLx-ILSdwX1drerXTysng7w


Main thought process was worrying about the line parting in a blow after days on end furled - the dyneema basically doesn't stretch so no movement for chafe and crazy strong and chafe resistant anyway so you'll see a big mess long before it will ever break.

Q3bvmog.png



Click to expand...

its much easier to strip the core back a couple of mts & knot the outer casing on the drum
 
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