jib and harkin furler

[Dennis Stone]

Thanks to all who gave suggestions on correcting a jib problem (wont go up and wont come down). It was a twisted cable that I was able to correct without going up the mast.Next question. I had help working on the Harkin furler. We found the jib halyard (steel cable) running inside the furler/sail track. This seemed ok at first but where the cable came out of the track looked all wrong. We removed the cable from the track and everything works fine. I was just wondering is the correct installation of the cable inside the furler track or did the previous owner not know what he was doing?Dennis Stone'77 SRFK #0764

 

[Bayard Gross]

Cable should be outside track

Unless you have some specialty furler, the jib halyard wire should definitely be outside the furler track or sail groove as it is more normally called.Think about it for a minute. The extrusion that is around the forestay with the sail groove in it turns when furling and unfurling the jib. If the halyard is inside of the sail groove, it must turn as well, which or course would start causing problems. The swivel that attaches the head of the jib and the halyard is the part that turns freely on the extrusion as it turns. You may wish to lubricate this swivel in the begining of the season before you put on the jib with some dry lubicaant like Harken's. I can't remeber it's name, although I just bought some.I think when the mast was lowered before you purchased the boat, the halyard wire may have inadvertently slipped into the sail groove on the extrusion. I cannot beleive the PO was that dumb. He probably was greatly inatentive to the set up of the boat when you got it.