WM Furling line Set-up?

[Roach1948]

I seem to be having a problem with my new for the season (old) furling gear. It is a Merriman system similar to a size 3 Wyckeham Martin. From the Stem to the cockpit it is about 4.5 metres, so I decided since it was not far, to get 6 metres of 8mm braided line; the thinking was that it would be easier to handle. This is about all the drum could take, and when winding the sail up, it transpired I did not have a long enough length, as the bitter end ran up to the stem each time. Then I decided to go 6mm at 7 metres, and the same still happens. Now I have got 10 metres of 5mm and although the problem is vastly reduced, all 10metres can get would in on occasion.

It seems to me that in fresh winds the sail unfurls very quickly and this for some add reason feeds more line than in slower wind speeds. I wonder if I have set it up all wrong and whether others have this issue with WM gear?
It is usually in strong winds that I don’t want to go forward to sort out a mess, and I am now going up there as frequently as I did when I had hanked sails!

 

[Kukri]

The appoved solution is to splice a fatter tail onto thin, hard, braided line - the latter goes on the drum.

 

[Roach1948]

I am not really worried about the thickness of my line, but the fact that my drum seems to eat up metres and metres of the stuff when furling after unfulring in strong winds.

 

[cliffordpope]

It's the other way round surely? Furling the sail is when you unwind the drum, unfurling winds the line back on as you unwind the sail?
I've two thoughts:
1) When the drum is unwound (ie sail furled) is there still too much unnecessary line taking up drum capacity?
2) If you let the sail unfurl too quickly the line doesn't wind so neatly. Ideally you would maintain a little tension on the line, like winding a sewing machine bobbin.

 

[Roach1948]

Yes, ofcourse you are right. I did not explain m yself properly.

What tends to happen is that when I unfurl the sail, the drum eats up all my ten metres of line (distance to drum from cleat is only 5 metres) , and then I need to undo the stopper knot and allow the line to feed through all the fairleds to set the sail. Then when it comes to furling I need to rush up on deck and retrieve the end of the line which somewhere half-way along the deck. I wonder if I have enough line, which I would imagine I do, which as you sugg est means the problem must be with line tension. The trouble with this is that as I single hand, I dont have enough hands to steer, furl and tension all at the same time!

 

[cliffordpope]

I agree, it's almost impossible, but it seems an obvious shortcoming of the system if you just have to let the line flail around and hope it's going to wind neatly onto the drum.
Ideally there ought to be some kind of semi-jambing cleat - something that would release steadily when pulled.
What about one of those dinghy tube and slot things, perhaps just a shade too small for the line so that it grips it lightly?