halyard wrap

[odaysailor]

Help! Last summer I had a Schaefer Snap Furl imstalled on my Oday 25. It seemed fine, but as I retracted it, it seemed to need a little extra pull. Having nothing to compare it to, it seemed to be OK. This season I have GREAT difficulty with it. Each time I use it is an adventure. The entire halyard wraps around- it even wraps around the mainsail halyard. This prohibits the raising or lowering of the main. I added a swivel at the top to ease the line wrap, but this hasn't help. How will I solve this problem? Thanks for any advice.Ed

 

[Don Evans]

Same Problem...What I Did

Was buy a Schaeffer halyard restrainer, from my sail loft that I use. Kinda looks like a stainless steel shoehorn, and is attached on the mast between the top swivel of the Snapfurl, and the halyard sheavebox at the very top of the mast. What it does is pull the halyard away from the swivel, such that the angle of the halyard is at almost a right angle to the top swivel of the snapfurl, thus preventing the halyard from getting close to the forstay. Solved that problem. It's a bit unnerving when you see the damage a few wraps due to the forestay. Mine was twisted completely apart for about 6" at the top of the forestay. Another couple of sails and that forestay was going to part...yikes.Don

 

[odaysailor]

Thanks Don Re: halyard wrap

Thanks Don for your suggestion about the Schaeffer restrainer. Unfortunately,in order to take in the jib yesterday I strong armed it and about a 5 inch section of the snapfurl flew off the stay and landed in the Great South Bay. It is above where the jib rides, so I will have to cap it somehow or order a whole new plastic snap - yuk! thanks again.Ed

 

[Don Evans]

Bizarre!!!

Ed, are you saying you lost a 5" piece of the polymer foil? Or just the black cap at the top of the foil? Or both? Their foil (tuff-luff) is as tough as nails. That cap though is a rinky-dink piece of plastic, quite useless, and I mentioned this to Schaeffer a couple of years ago. They kinda agreed. Not sure if they dealt with it or not. Actually, I would give them a call and see what they can suggest (508-995-9511). They are quite sensitive about their furler, and are quite eager to learn from actual applications. They actually called me at home when they heard I was one of the first to install one in Canada. They wanted to hear my feedback. Quite amazing. I found them to be very understanding.Don

 

[Nathan]

Snap-Furl

Don- have you experienced any difficulty with it? I installed one at the beginning of this season and have not had any trouble yet. However, when I was researching which system to purchase, I was told that this model may be too light for my 26. The only complaint that I have is that reefing while under a load is a bit rough on the hands. Other than that- it appears to be working just fine. I honestly don't know how I got along without it.

 

[Don Evans]

An Excellent Furler

Nathan, I have been very pleased with the Snap Furl. The engineers at Schaeffer actually thought the unit was suitable for boats up to 28', at least their foil anyways, but they played it conservatively. I actually see they have brought out a beefier drum for boats in that size range, and relegated our units for boats slightly smaller. Other than the halyard wrap, which can happen on any furler, my only complaint at the time was the lack of info on coupling the 2 halfs of their foil together, but a call to them gave some tips on that (channel locks and soap). Happy furling.Don