I have a flexible furler on my O'Day 272. I have been having trouble raising the sail to the top which leaves about 18" of sail hanging on the bottom. The halyard has a loop at the top that seems to to grab near the top, but will go no further. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem. Could the sail be raised before the mast is stepped so the sail could be pushed on manually?
Flexible Furler Problem
- Thread starter gjaffess
- Start date
- Status
I had a flex furl on my m26 and left the sail on when dropping the mast for long term storage or when needing to remove for repairs I would drop sailing before lowering mast . Then I would often put sail back on before raising mast then tie off furler stretching it out or get a second person to help furl it while it was laying flat. Also made it easier to see were any binding might be occurring as we slid the head sail back on the track groove.gjaffess said:
I'd check hte length of your halyard. We had a FF on our old CAL 21 and I used to have to feed the first 12" or so of the boltrope into the furler groove, then atach the halyard to the head of the jib. That made sure that the sail reached near the top of hte furler before the halyard slider reached the bottom of the furler. Worth checking.
My CDI ff 2 is making it difficult to hoist the sail when vertical, but when I lay it out on a long bench, no problem... Could be the same issue with the top turn.
FWIW, I have a winch on the trailer located pretty well for the pull, and that helped, plus some silicone.
FWIW, I have a winch on the trailer located pretty well for the pull, and that helped, plus some silicone.
I suspect that after a while, the path of the halyard as it loops through the upper end of the furler wears and increases friction as you raise the sail each year. I know that I was starting to find it harder to raise the sail on our CDI FF2 after 12-13 years (season for us was June-Sept. sail went on furler at start of season after mast was stepped, off at end before mast was unstepped). Had we kept the boat longer (sold her in 2008 after 38 years, 15 with the CDI), I might have replaced that top fitting on the furler.
- Status