re: roller furling issues
John,How old is your jib with the integral stay? Has it been used heavily? I haven't had a similar problem with the furling rig on my 170, but I'm taking a guess. If the top swivel is rotating freely, and the bottom drum rotates many times before the top swivel begins to turn, that means the forestay is absorbing the first rotations. This suggests that the forestay itself has lost some of its natural twist and the individual strands have begun to separate and straighten, either in a short damaged section, or along the entire length. As a result, the first rotations of the furling drum do nothing but rewind the forestay until the strands are tight. Since the rotation is applied from the drum at the bottom of the forestay, the lower portion of the forestay tightens first, and begins to furl the lower portion of the jib. As the rotations continue, the twist-tightening travels up the forestay, taking the jib around with it, but by the time the head of the jib begins to furl, the tack will have made several wraps already. For a better illustration, take an old piece of multi-strand sisal or hemp rope several feet long, tie one end to pole or rail, and twist the free end counter-clockwise. You'll see the strands begin to straighten and separate. Then see how many clockwise turns it takes to re-tighten the strands before the twisting motion travels the full length of the rope and reaches the far(tied)end.A quick fix would be to lengthen the furling drum line that extends back into the cockpit, if there's room on the drum for it. That would give you the additional turns to completely furl the jib head. But it's not a good long-term solution, because the reliability of the forestay is probably suspect.I encourage you to keep asking experts -- sailmakers, riggers, wire manufacturers, your dealer, and Hunter -- until you get a good answer. If the forestay is losing its twist, that probably indicates an overall loss of strength, or possibly a weak short segment that has become kinked and/or damaged by untwisting. One of the big disadvantages of an integral forestay is that it cannot be visually inspected for wear or damage. If you run your fingers carefully along the luff, you may be able to detect a kink, break, change in wire diameter, or another clue to what's going on in there. If you are able to determine the cause, please post it. I'll be interested in learning the solution to the mystery, and I'm sure many other 170 owners will, too. Good luck!