I have a 16 year old Furlex 100S which is sticking pretty badly. I would say it worked fine for the first 8 years, and then started to get stuck when I was unfurling the jib (a 110%). I would have to go out and unroll it by hand for the last 1/2 or 1/3 of the way. Then the boat sat on land for 3.5 years, and now it's worse. I can't even get it unrolled more than a few feet before I have to help it in some way.
I did discover recently that I can get it to unfurl quite easily by easing the halyard (sometimes quite a bit) and then retensioning after it's unrolled, but obviously this isn't normal. No: I don't think I'm over tensioning it, but what do I know? I have no problem furling the sail afterwards.
Before the jib was put on, both the top swivel and the bottom swivel/drum seemed to turn perfectly freely. I had intended to lube the bearings, but had some problems with my sail repairs, and the sail tech came out and put the jib on himself before I got to it.
So I have 2 theories:
1) It's just the bearings. If I wash them out and lube them, it'll be fine.
2) maybe there's some problem with the forestay tension? One odd thing I noticed: the foil (the part which fits around the forestay) looks a bit banged up just _below_ the feeder slot where the sail feeds in. Not too bad, but I have absolutely no idea how this could have happened.
Your thoughts are welcome.
Jay
I did discover recently that I can get it to unfurl quite easily by easing the halyard (sometimes quite a bit) and then retensioning after it's unrolled, but obviously this isn't normal. No: I don't think I'm over tensioning it, but what do I know? I have no problem furling the sail afterwards.
Before the jib was put on, both the top swivel and the bottom swivel/drum seemed to turn perfectly freely. I had intended to lube the bearings, but had some problems with my sail repairs, and the sail tech came out and put the jib on himself before I got to it.
So I have 2 theories:
1) It's just the bearings. If I wash them out and lube them, it'll be fine.
2) maybe there's some problem with the forestay tension? One odd thing I noticed: the foil (the part which fits around the forestay) looks a bit banged up just _below_ the feeder slot where the sail feeds in. Not too bad, but I have absolutely no idea how this could have happened.
Your thoughts are welcome.
Jay