Roller Reefing Headsail - Hard turning

Rosie1963

Rosie1963

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ramblinginrosie.blogspot.co.uk
I am not that used to roller reefing headsails as had hanked on sails on the last yacht, and on the present yacht the roller reefing worked well until I dropped the mast (first time in my ownership), had a new sail made and now trying to set up the rig with this new sail on the foil.

It seems that the roller drum is very hard to turn using the furling line - I think this might be a consequence of the rig/halyard tension set up wrongly. The drum never had this problem before, but in these high winds I noticed that the furled sail seems to vibrate a lot which it never did. I suspect strongly the problems are to do with the set-up and shroud tensions. Do I need to tension the backstays more to tension the foil? Could it be the halyard tension (but I have tensioned this and now that it is spectra is as tensioned as the wire I had before). There are so many variables here and I don't seem to be making headway in getting this drum turning freely. Any suggestions?
 
I inherited a furling jib that was very sensitive to the halyard/backstay tension and jammed if the 'sweet' tensions weren't hit.In fact the jamming was occurring on a Rotostay furler when the top slider bearings locked up because some of the delrin balls were worn elliptical or broken.Replacing the balls,obtained from Simply Bearings for about £10, produced a magical 'free running' result and it has not jammed since whatever the backstay/halyard tensions.May be your problem if not the drum bearings.Presumably the drum is stiff when tested without line ? Fresh water only is recommended for cleaning Rotostay bearings with plastic balls.
https://verl900.wordpress.com/technical-articles/rotostay-furler-bearings/
has some very useful tips.
 
If it was ok last time before the mast was dropped. I would just try easing the halyard tension first. Too much tension puts a lot of friction on one side of the ball race at the top swivel.
 
There are some things to be aware of with roller furling
1) Slack halyard can cause halyard wrap - if you use force to furl/unfurl the sail you can damage the stay
2) To little head stay tension can give a stiff system (The foil should be almost straight) - some roller furling systems have a turnbuckle inside/under the drum on others you must set the correct aft stay tension (or both)
3) Check for overrides on the drum
4) The bearings in the system needs maintenance (depending on system)
5) Some systems are picky about correct halyard tension - experiment to find out
6) Sometimes the bearings need to be replaced there should not be much play in the bearings (top swivel and furling drum)
 
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Make sure that the halyard makes an angle of at least ten degrees with the forestay at the top swivel. If not the halyard may wrap around the wire, which will destroy it. There are some photos on the website under 'sails and rig'.
 
The two major causes are halyard and bearings.

(1) Apply minimum tension to the halyard. Unlike hanked-on sails there can be no sagging of the luff between hanks...because there aren't any; the groove in the aluminium profile will keep the luff straight and any minor creases will fill out as soon as the sail begins to draw.

(2) Contrary to what many people instinctively think, there is no need to lubricate the balls in the bearings; lubricants will accumulate fine airborne dirt (even from traffic) and will eventually congeal to the consistency of clay (or Plasticene). Just keep them clean by using an occasional jet of fresh water. Spray some kitchen degreaser to get rid of any remaining lubricant.

As you might have guessed, this was learned the hard way. ;)
 
PuffTheMagicDragon said:
(1) Apply minimum tension to the halyard. Unlike hanked-on sails there can be no sagging of the luff between hanks...because there aren't any; the groove in the aluminium profile will keep the luff straight and any minor creases will fill out as soon as the sail begins to draw.
Click to expand...

That is not entirely correct. If the backstay or aft shrouds are not tight enough the forestay can sag considerably & the aluminium foil cannot stop that. That makes it harder to rotate.
 
Daydream believer said:
That is not entirely correct. If the backstay or aft shrouds are not tight enough the forestay can sag considerably & the aluminium foil cannot stop that. That makes it harder to rotate.
Click to expand...
So true. I had to shorten my backstays to get enough tension on the turnbuckles to stop sag on the forestay foil.
The furler wound in much easier afterwards.
 
It's a traditional wooden yacht with many shrouds: I have fwd lowers/aft lowers, running backstays, 2xcaps, 2xintermediates, two backstays and a she is cutter rigged two forestays. So tightening one means a knock on effect on the others and I have run out of bottlescrew thread on the forestay. Tried last night to tighten the forestay by tightening the back stays to give me more thread forward. I went down the pontoon feeling others' tension and I think that mine was saggy - so that is my first job. Once this is done I can explore the halyard tension - it seems calmer today so can unroll her this evening.
 
Rosie1963 said:
It's a traditional wooden yacht with many shrouds: I have fwd lowers/aft lowers, running backstays, 2xcaps, 2xintermediates, two backstays and a she is cutter rigged two forestays. So tightening one means a knock on effect on the others and I have run out of bottlescrew thread on the forestay. Tried last night to tighten the forestay by tightening the back stays to give me more thread forward. I went down the pontoon feeling others' tension and I think that mine was saggy - so that is my first job. Once this is done I can explore the halyard tension - it seems calmer today so can unroll her this evening.
Click to expand...
What have changed since last year?
Did you mark the bottlescrews (or note the tension) before taking the mast down.
 
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