End of my line???

[jonelli]

hey guys, a first for me... I ran out of furler line today before my sail is fully wrapped up??

Never happened before. I was taking my headsail in and I thought was stuck when I was about two wraps away from being good. But after checking everything. I saw that the furler was at the end of the line!

Here's my theory... it got blowing just over 20knts and my wife was uneasy so I reefed the sails. Maybe the reef wrap was under more tension than normal wrap? Then when we got to the island I finished it off. Again, it was still blowing, but I let the sheets out enough to where it was easy to furl in.

Anyway, I wonder if it's just wrapped really tight?

 

[All U Get]

Yes, we sometimes wrap with a lot of tension on the sail. We just run the sheets around the foil a few times to finish the wrap. Then when we wrap again when its less windy, there are a few wraps of line on the spool.

All U Get

 

[jssailem]

It can happen. You need to find a no wind day. You have three options to resolve the issue.

1. Unwind the sail, lower sail off the furler. Wind the rope up on the furler drum (this puts the line in the normal sail raised and out sailing position). Raise the sail, then wind the sail up.
2. Or you can manually wind the sail up, take the furler line out of the fairleads to the bow, unwind it off the drum, now pull the sail out, letting the furler line feed on to the drum, add a few extra wraps of line around the drum, then rethread it in the fairleads.
3. The sail is wrapped tighter than your normal set. Pull the sail out, wrapping the line on the drum. Then unfurl and re wrap. See if this corrects the issue.

You are probably correct the sail is tightly wrapped and this caused you to run out of line.

 

[justsomeguy]

Maybe the reef wrap was under more tension than normal wrap?

Yep.

 

[LeslieTroyer]

I find I can avoid a tight wrap by furling while going downwind with the genoa blanked by the main.

Les

 

[Joe]

Did you use the winch? Was the sheet loaded up? That might cause a tight wrap.

 

[Scott B]

It can happen. You need to find a no wind day. You have three options to resolve the issue.

1. Unwind the sail, lower sail off the furler. Wind the rope up on the furler drum (this puts the line in the normal sail raised and out sailing position). Raise the sail, then wind the sail up.
2. Or you can manually wind the sail up, take the furler line out of the fairleads to the bow, unwind it off the drum, now pull the sail out, letting the furler line feed on to the drum, add a few extra wraps of line around the drum, then rethread it in the fairleads.
3. The sail is wrapped tighter than your normal set. Pull the sail out, wrapping the line on the drum. Then unfurl and re wrap. See if this corrects the issue.

You are probably correct the sail is tightly wrapped and this caused you to run out of line.

4. undo the sheets at the sail, roll the sail by hand on the furler, reattach the sheets.

 

[BigEasy]

IF you have some excess furling line coiled in the cockpit, simply run it forward thru the fairleads and put a couple more wraps on the drum. No need to unwrap the sail or drop it. In the future, if you get a tight wrap you wont come up short. You also need to adjust the furling line so that you get a minimum of three wraps of headsail sheets around the furled sail to prevent it from coming unfurled in gusty conditions or thunderstorm. Next time you replace the furler line, might want to add a few extra feet of line for those contingencies.

 

[jonelli]

Thanks all. Just got back from our Catalina trip. While on the mooring, I let the headsail out and re-wrapped it. It helped a little. When I got back to the marina I made sure to very carefully wrap it nicely and I got almost two wraps of sheet around it but I was at then end again.
There's almost 30 feet of furling line left over in the cockpit. Seems silly. I like what BigEasy suggested, to just run it forward and add some wraps. I'll do that next time I'm at the boat. Thanks!

 

[jonelli]

Here's a pic my wife took at sunrise at the island.

 

[jssailem]

Nice pic.

 

[jonelli]

I've been thinking about this more, and how it could be so far to the end in the first place, and I don't remember ever having this come up before. I remember last summer now that the furler did get jammed once up top so I took down the sail to inspect everything, and I wonder if maybe when I disconnected the bottom of the sail from the furler I turned it a couple of times not realizing? Seems the only likely explanation.

 

[Kermit]

Everyone is right about it being wrapped too tight. I've seen it happen on a Catalina 30 but it could happen on any boat with a furler. The owner was convinced something was amiss. ("Amiss! Amiss!" "Yes?") He was going to go to all kinds of trouble to unwrap, refurl and correct the issue. I suggested he go forward and wrap a few wraps of the line around the furled headsail and it's been working perfectly ever since.
p.s. Sorry for the movie quote. I couldn't resist.

 

[JRacer]

Some, just get wrapped too tight! ;-)