Jib back breaker

[Rick]

My jib roler furling is particularly hard to rollup. Is there a way to make the job easier?paw@cayuse.net

 

[Steve Dion]

Try carb cleaner!

Rick:Try using Carburetor Cleaner. This stuff comes with a snorkle tube that goes on the spray nozzle. Spray than down into the bearings of the roller and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Then flush it out with lots of water.Most of the roller units do not require any lubrication. It just gunks them up when the salt and and dirt get in there anyway. Once the thing is working properly again, just flush it out every time you wash the boat down.

 

[Bill O'Donovan]

Caution

I took Steve Dion's advice on this last month and it worked great. But be sure to specify at the hardware store that you need carb cleaner for plastic ball bearings. The kind for steel ball bearings will gum up the plastic something awful, he warned.

 

[Ray Bowles]

With carb cleaner be careful around decals etc.

Although I've never tried this trick I wonder if automotive electrical contact cleaner would be better. It is designed for use around plastic parts and has fantastic cleaning properties.Small area testing would be best for both before shooting a large area.RayS/V Speedy

 

[Bill Ebling]

Are you releasing...

the halyard tension before you furl or unfurl? Can make a big difference.

 

[Michael Wallach]

release halyard tension

I had the same problem with my Hunter 37.5. The solution was to ease tension a couple of inches (literally) on the jib halyard before rolling up the jib. The result was amazing. You should also check to make sure that no portion of the anchor line (or anything else stored in the anchor locker) is interferring with operation of the drum or roller furling line.

 

[Colin]

Check the rail mounted blocks.

This may sound like the obvious but I found that the blocks used to leed the retriever line back to the cockpit all had flats on, making it very difficult to douse the genoa. In aprticular the one nearest the cockpit had worn right through and the line was rubbing on the fixed axle. I replaced that one with a block having frictionless bearing and rebuilt the others for a huge improvement. On my H335 when I initially threaded the line back to the cockpit I missed one block that was located in the anchor locker, this block prevented the line from caffing on the sharp end of a screw (I bought my boat on the hard so didn't know that block was there). Might be something to check.