[Public-List] Roller Furler Luff Rope and Dacron Twisting

[Jonathan Bresler]

Folks,

Constance is my first experience with a roller furler.   Hoisting the genoa
can be a bit of a pain.  The dacron enclosing the luff rope/wire, the part
that goes into the groove of the foil which surrounds the headstay,
twists.  Once it starts to twist, the dacron drags and seems to twist more,
trying to force three layers of dacron into the slot of the foil, in place
of the two layers of dacron for which it was designed.   The twist is
clockwise viewed from above, in the same direction as the sail turns when
it furls.  The UV protection cloth is on the port side of the sail, so the
sail must furl clockwise in order to leave the UV cloth on the outside.  To
visualize this hold your right hand with your thumb pointing at your nose,
fingers together and naturally curving toward the palm of your right hand.
Your thumb is the foil.  Your thumbnail is the swivel on the foil to which
the jib halyard attaches.  Your fingertips are the leech of the genoa.
(its a small sail, chord length is one finger long ;)

The way I have been handling this, is to straIghten the "luff rope" and the
two layers of dacron by giving them a bit of "pre-twist"
counter-clockwise.  Hoist some sail till it starts to bind due to the
twist, lower a bit, pre-twist a couple feet of luff, hoist, repeat.
Clearly, this does not make for quick sail changes.  Any idea of quickly
raising a second sail in other unused groove is laughable....at least the
"quickly" part is laughable.

So what's up?  Worn out luff rope and dacron in the sail?   Dacron around
the luff rope has bagged over the years?  I need lessons?  Anyone else
having a similar issue?  How did you fix it?

Jonathan

-- 
Jonathan M Bresler
S/V Constance Alberg 30 #262
Annapolis/Eastport MD