MacGregor Furling System

[rclendenon]

I have had my Mac 26M for a year this August and have had nothing put problems with the furling system. While fairly easy to unfurl, it is nearly impossible to bring the genoa back in without going to the bow of the boat and rewinding the furling system by hand. It appears that the furling line binds on itself. I have tried adjusting the rigging to take any slack out of the genoa, but no luck. Has anyone else had this issue or have have any suggestions on how to fix? The current situation makes it nearly impossible (and very unsafe) to take the boat out by myself.

Thanks

[jaguar496]

I had the same problem with "THE RESTLESS TWO". This thread suggested to use a bit of "SAILKOTE", which i did, bought it at WM, a few shots of it into the center of the furler, along with proper tension on the furling line when flying the genny and tension on the jenny sheets when furling, solved my problem. Now, I exercise the genny a bit before sailing, just 2-3 feet, to make sure I can furl. stew

[c130king]

I ditto what Stew said. I had the same problems first few times.

Must keep some tension on the furling line when un-rolling the Genoa. If you just let it fly you will get tangles in your furling drum making it difficult to roll back in. And then when rolling it in keep some tension on the sail with the sheets to get a nice clean roll.

Good Luck,
Jim

[Hamin' X]

Yep, tension on the furler line and a controlled unfurling is the key to all furling system and I have used many. This will eliminate the looseness of the wraps on the drum, that allow the higher wraps to squeeze between the lower wraps, locking the furler. Also, you can head up a bit to take the wind load off of the foresail, making the deployment much more controlled.

~Rich

[pokerrick1]

Must keep some tension on the furling line when un-rolling the Genoa. If you just let it fly you will get tangles in your furling drum making it difficult to roll back in. And then when rolling it in keep some tension on the sail with the sheets to get a nice clean roll.

EXACTLY - - - this is the answer to the problem - - - practice keeping tension on the small furling line when letting out the Genoa, and your problem will be solved

Rick less in Las Vegas

[Finn]

I generally put a little tension on the leeward Genoa sheet when furling in the Genoa. That keeps the furled sail nice and tight so that the sock will fit. The tension is achieved by wrapping the sheet 1/2 turn around a winch and just providing enough slack to roll it in. Also. I strongly recommend that some tension is added to the furling line when un-rolling the Genoa as others have suggested.

Finn

[Mrs_Skipper]

A little off topic, but we have a CDI furler with a jib. We also got a Genoa when we bought the boat -- still in its original bag. Can we remove the jib and substitute the Genoa? We often have light winds on Lake Tahoe and it would sure be nice to have the larger sail.

I apologize in advance if it is rude of me to change the topic.

I can say we've been amazed by how well the furler works, but we've always kept tension on the sheets when furling/unfurling. Hopefully we wouldn't have a problem requiring us to go do stuff by hand if we switched to the Genoa. We're investigating the new main furling system now available as we're not as young as we once were and it looks pretty slick!

[Hamin' X]

Just an additional note on furler operation: I have found that the turning block on the bow pulpit, on several boats that I have chartered, needed relocating to feed the furler line at the proper angle to the furler drum.

~Rich

[Kelly Hanson East]

Two things

1 On Rich's post above - a small harken micro block, shackled to the base of the bow pulpit, will make this adjustment perfectly on an There is also a lot less friction on the line using the pulpit eye.

2 Ms Skipper - the 150 genny just fits in the CDI FF2 - by this I mean the amount of furler line you need to wrap in a 150 will fill the drum. I found the magic number of wraps to put on the drum before loading the sail was 6. Fewer than this and you risk running out of furler line when furling under tension, more than this and you end up with unfurled sail.

If you replace the knot on the end of the genny sheet with a snap shackle, you can deal with the not-enough furler line situation on anchor in about 2 minutes (unsnap shackle, turn sail on furler to wrap it in and reconnect shackle.

If you overfill the furler, it is more difficult of course.

You can also help the overfill situation by 'decoring' the 3/16 furler line for the first few feet - this gives you a bit more room in the drum.