Problem with Furlex 100S - getting stuck

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Usangi

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I have a problem with the roller furling genoa. It's a Furlex 100S. It gets stuck at a certain point when unfurling. And then the whole drum starts spinning around. In fact, on our first trip with it out, we didn't realise and pulled the sail completely out only to see that the drum has spun lots of time, wrapping the furling line around the outside of it.

It's not halyard wrap as we have a halyward restrainer thing on the mast and I can see that it's working fine.

I've uploaded a video and wondered if anybody could give me advice.

As this is our first boat and having never looked closely at a furling mechanism I can't be absolutely certain of what the problem is. But it looks to me like the furling line isn't going neatly and evenly onto the drum and therefore at a certain point the rope is so bunched up that it locks it. The things I've tried/looked at are:
  • Rerouting the furling line so it came in at a lower angle into the drum - didn't make a difference
  • Completely furled the sail, to try and start from the beginning with the furling line completely unwound from the drum (but still attached) - didn't make a difference
  • Checked the springy plastic bit inside to see if that was broken or not - it didn't seem to have a problem as far as I could see.
Am at a bit of a loss around what to do now. Thoughts?

https://imgur.com/bKIz7Yy
 
Usangi said:
I have a problem with the roller furling genoa. It's a Furlex 100S. It gets stuck at a certain point when unfurling. And then the whole drum starts spinning around. In fact, on our first trip with it out, we didn't realise and pulled the sail completely out only to see that the drum has spun lots of time, wrapping the furling line around the outside of it.

It's not halyard wrap as we have a halyward restrainer thing on the mast and I can see that it's working fine.

I've uploaded a video and wondered if anybody could give me advice.

As this is our first boat and having never looked closely at a furling mechanism I can't be absolutely certain of what the problem is. But it looks to me like the furling line isn't going neatly and evenly onto the drum and therefore at a certain point the rope is so bunched up that it locks it. The things I've tried/looked at are:
  • Rerouting the furling line so it came in at a lower angle into the drum - didn't make a difference
  • Completely furled the sail, to try and start from the beginning with the furling line completely unwound from the drum (but still attached) - didn't make a difference
  • Checked the springy plastic bit inside to see if that was broken or not - it didn't seem to have a problem as far as I could see.
Am at a bit of a loss around what to do now. Thoughts?

https://imgur.com/bKIz7Yy
Click to expand...
Just my opinion....but I will not be buying a Furlex like this again although i think they may have changed the design in recent years. Horrible overly complex engineering in my view. I have the 200s and if you search the forum you will find we're not alone in experiencing problems. Make sure you dont have any excess wraps on the drum as its the build up of line thats jamming it. You can also replace the furling line with a slightly smaller diameter. In the end I took mine apart and cut out the spring loaded line tension device that is supposed to guide the line onto the drum but inevitably jams it. Means you have to keep a little tension on the line when unfurling but has worked perfectly ever since. Quite why they have to make it so complex I dont know. Its a nightmare to service and you risk half the bits going over the side when you do!

You can probably tell im not a fan! Just my opinion of course...

Others will tell you theirs works perfectly and that you just need to get the line feed angle correct but like you i tried every conceivable angle to no avail.
 
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While I agree that the drum seems to be getting full, there are advantages to having a few extra turns on it. It ensures you can get the sail fully rolled even when the genny decides to wind itself tighter than you ever thought possible and still have a turn or two of halyard round it. Like others above, I'd try a thinner line
 
See post #2
That looks like the standard (8mm?) furling line to me. A thinner line (6mm) will help but is not as nice to handle - depending on how the line is routed and how much breeze there is. They should have designed the thing properly in the first place! IMHO

By all means try a thinner line but if that doesnt work id remove the sprung line guide - as Selden themselves suggested to another forumite in 2014 after acknowledging that it can cause jams. They removed the guide in later models
 
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I've got the 200S and it works very well after I removed the flexible guide bit inside the drum. The line I use is 8mm and on the first 6 or 7m I removed the inner core to give even more space on the drum. I would quite happily purchase another one. I try to rinse it after sailing with fresh water to try and keep the salt crystal's out of the bearings.
 
Thanks everyone!

Before I either remove the plastic flexible guide or change the furling line, I'll check about the extra turns.

One question before I have a look: When the furling line is completely out, how furled should the sail be? At the moment, there is quite a bit of jib sheet around the sail. This obviously means that a fair bit of furling line is going around the drum even before the sail starts coming out.
 
You just need to make sure there is enough line in the drum when the sail is fully furled when you first hoist it, so that when you furl it back in, in stronger winds (so the wrap of the rolls will be tighter) that there is enough line to allow it to furl fully.
 
Usangi said:
One question before I have a look: When the furling line is completely out, how furled should the sail be? At the moment, there is quite a bit of jib sheet around the sail. This obviously means that a fair bit of furling line is going around the drum even before the sail starts coming out.
Click to expand...

When the largest sail is tightly furled, there should be 3-5 turns of furling line left on the drum. It's difficult to tell from a video, but it does look like your furling line is thicker than the recommended 8mm. Do you have the Furlex manual? If not, it would be worth downloading it from the Selden Mast website - it will help you to double-check that yours is properly assembled and aligned.

http://www.seldenmast.com/files/1426855958/595-102-E.pdf
 
You need 2 or 3 turns on the furling drum when the genoa is fully out - otherwise if you try and furl when really windy you'll still have some genoa showing - my experience with a Rotostay.
 
pvb said:
Sure about that?
Click to expand...
Don't be mean ?
I reckon on 3 turns being about right with the 8mm line when the sail is "tightly furled" as the line starts to bind even with the line guide removed with 4 or 5.

Alternatively I could try adding another 6 ft to my mast to change the angle of the drum as being built for the weather conditions off Cape Town the rig is a tad conservative! What ever i do to the lead angle makes zero difference so maybe thats the secret.

Joking aside removing the guide was defintely the solution in my case
 
After some glorious weather, and being able to mostly get the foresail out, have finally got around to looking again at this.

The plastic flexible guide/flaps seem pretty loose. Is that normal? They don't look like they'd do a great job at pushing the rope onto the drum. Therefore, I think it makes sense, after hearing other people's experience, to get rid of them.

So, do I just hacksaw them out? I read somewhere about drilling out a rivet but can't see anything like that. It's all moulded plastic.

https://imgur.com/hcUiJRP
https://imgur.com/ATLl6Qi
https://imgur.com/JGeLPGF
 
Mine was attached to the outer casing that you have removed. Have you tried removing the drum itself plus the flap bit yet to see what is hidden underneath. If and when you do keep a couple of turns of the furling line round the drum. It saves losing one half!
 
On the OP video it looks like something is pushing the top revolving surface of the drum upwards as it turns. Is the rope riding up as you unfurl and jamming under the top surface?
 
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