Roller furling problem

[pocket272]

I have a 1995 Oceanis 281 with original roller furling for the gennaker. Over the past couple of years it has been getting hard and harder to unfurl and wind up the sail. I thought it was the issue with halyard wrap and tried various means of dealing with that.

However, after taking down the sail, I tried the furling unit and it turned with little tension. But when I looked up to the top, I saw that the forestay had a series of knots in it. I quickly reversed the furling drum and unkinked the forestay.

It would seem to me that part of the aluminum extrusion has seized on to the forestay. As such, can I remove the extrusion from the forestay without taking dropping the mast and lubricate it?

Thanks.

 

[SoSound]

I'm too new to help directly, but there have been a couple of recent threads in the All Sailors section of this forum which may help - these should link you directly to the posts...

headsail stay tension on 6/26

Halyard "wrap" on 6/25

Removing flexible furler on 6/22

If these don't help, you could either update this thread with your furler brand and model or continue on with one of the other threads. Good luck.
Dave