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For anyone with a roller furler, what size line are you using that spools into the drum? The PO put what looks like a simple cotton clothes line on it, which is very rough on the hands and gives a bunch.

Thanks, Michael

I use 4mm line with CDI furler
The 5mm line was too big on the drum... Hope the 4mm is stron enough...

CDI FF2 manual says "5/32" or 3/16" braid on braid dacron". 5/32" is essentially 4mm, and 3/16" is 4.75mm.

5/32" T-100 Technora double braid has a published breaking strength of 2900 lb. 4 mm Vectran double braid has a breaking strength of 1760 lb.

I don't think strength will be a problem, even partially furled in a blow, given the drum radius.

I agree with Tom, I have 3/16th on my 150 genoa. I have run multiple times in 12 to 15 knots with good gust beyond. Furled down to 2/3rds still held solid. Don't skimp on quality here.

Michael,

This is a thread which might be of interest to you. It is on a related topic, what size line to use, so as to not jam in the drum. It eventually gets on target by addressing the size of the line.
http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... urler+Line

Ray

Thanks all... I think my problem is quality of line more than size. Another winter project....

mdbrown wrote:Thanks all... I think my problem is quality of line more than size. Another winter project....

Interesting point. I use cheap-o 1/4" three-strand I got at a big box for things like fender lines (as just one example), as it's easy to splice loops for custom lengths. And the same cheap-o nylon 3-strand for a messenger line when dropping the head sail, as the FF2 needs a tailing line or you lose the halyard, but for actual working lines, the rare times I've tried something cheap, I've regretted it. False economy.

At least the small line for the furler is quite inexpensive for quality line, since it's so small. 3/16" Sta-Set yacht braid (1400 lb breaking strength) is only $0.70/ft, so (guessing) 30 ft is only a little more than $20. The 4mm Vectran is even less. It's small in the hand, but I never have to pull it very hard, so small is acceptable to me.

I agree with the other comments on don't go cheap on furling line.

Depending on how your boat is rigged - most furling lines run to the cockpit through fairleeds, which create chaffing on the line. A cheap line will chaff in a short time and create havoc inside the furling drum.

It bears saying, that you should keep in view the relative diameters of the furling line on the spool, and the furled sail. On a brand new headsail with a sewn on UV strip, I once discovered that at one point the diameter of the furled on sail was greater than that of the spooled line being pulled - negative mechanical advantage! The smaller the diameter of the line, the sooner this could occur, not to mention the discomfort if you're hauling it in by hand.

Max Entropy wrote:It bears saying, that you should keep in view the relative diameters of the furling line on the spool, and the furled sail. On a brand new headsail with a sewn on UV strip, I once discovered that at one point the diameter of the furled on sail was greater than that of the spooled line being pulled - negative mechanical advantage! The smaller the diameter of the line, the sooner this could occur, not to mention the discomfort if you're hauling it in by hand.

your right of course!!!
but I had changed the 5mm line to a 4mm one becouse the drum was too small to take all the 5mm line... I'm not too happy about this...

Not to hijack the thread...
This topic comes up repeatedly, especially with new boat owners. This is not a criticism, just an observation. And it means that there is an ongoing issue that just doesn't get solved easily. The main issue to me is that auch small line is hard on the old desk-jockey hands.
So the engineer and inventor in me keeps asking why i can't just make the furler on my CDI into a looped line system (like a spinnaker furler) by simply wrapping the line around the drum a number of times to create the friction necessary to drive the drum, and bringing both lines back to the cockpit via separate fairleads or blocks. Why does it have to coil up on the drum? That way, i could use a larger line size that would be easier on the hands, and coiling becomes a non-issue. Thoughts?

The only issue that comes to mind is getting the required friction for the much heavier headsails in comparison to light spinnaker material

We pulled the boat out of the lake yesterday for the first time. Even though the forecast today is for 72 and 20mph winds, work was going to keep me away from the lake. This weekend we are down below freezing with highs in the 40s. Can't complain, it has been an awesome October and November for sailing in Central IL.

As part of lowering the mast and all, I took the genoa off of the roller furler. I'm 95% sure the sail had never been removed, and this furler has been up for at least 5 years. The string holding the sail to the furler was no stronger than a shoelace. I'm not sure how it was still able to hold. Also, there wasn't enough string to allow you to detach from the bottom, slide the sail down, and then ever be able to reattach the sail without lowering the forestay.

All this to say I'm pretty sure the PO didn't use anything close to the right line in the furler or when attaching the sail. Now that the boat is home in the garage for winter, I've just got a few additional things to fix besides replacing the line.

mdbrown wrote:Also, there wasn't enough string to allow you to detach from the bottom, slide the sail down, and then ever be able to reattach the sail without lowering the forestay.

Assuming you have a FF2, that's by design. The tail is secured to a tiny shackle on the furler, opposite the shackle the tack is secured by, but to drop the sail, you need to bend a tailing line onto it if you want to be able to hoist a sail again without dropping the mast.

If you had a 'halyard' long enough, what would you do with all that line when the sail is fully hoisted in the foil?

Ah ok.