During the latter part of this sailing season, the jib halyard wrapped around the top of the furling and caused a little grief (not as much as making Four Sisters airborne to be relegated to months of inactivity in a cradle).
When the mast was taken down, I noticed the wire rope had cut into the top of the furler. Does anyone know what caused it and, more importantly, how to fix it. I would appreciate any help or directions on where to find a solution.
Thanks - John W. Lane

I had this kind of trouble at the beginning of the season and found that it was apparently due to leaving too much slack in the genoa halyard and furling the genoa under tension. I think what happened was that the weight of the sail dragging down on the masthead furler spindle worked with the amount of furling tension to make it easier for the halyard to wrap the stay than for the spindle to turn. If I hadn't had too much slack in the halyard this wouldn't have been a problem, but as it was I got a wrap on the headstay, and the headstay chafed through the halyard. The net result was I had to climb the mast and fish the halyard back down through the mast to the exit port (see a thread on this list from last July).
Now when I furl I make sure to head up into the wind. One of my pre-sail checks is to make sure the halyard is taut, and one of my post-sail checks is to inspect the masthead through binoculars. A wire-to-rope halyard wrap is scary...wonder if it could have cut through the headstay?
Ed

This is a common problem. If you will notice the halyard as it exits the mast is close and parallel to the forstay. This makes the halyard easy to wrap around the forestay.
There are a few remedies.
You could raise the jib on the extrusion using a painter at the tack, this will decrease the opportunity for twist or you could place a block on the mast at the hieght of the extrusion and run the halyard through the block before attaching to the car.
Be certain to have a tight halyard also to avoid rap.
J Goldberg - Elusive

John,
This happened to me a couple of years ago and it happened because it was windy and we wanted to set the jib. The jib had never been hoisted before. In order to hoist it I needed an extender but it was not long enough and the wire halyard cut the plastic as it was wrapping itself around the extrusion. We rapped it with good old duct tape and lengthened the extender and things worked.
Peter - S/V Bon Vivant

John,
The same thing happened to me a few years ago. There was not enough separation at the masthead between the wire rope halyard and the furler foil. The halyard got caught in the groove and opened it up about 3/8 of an inch. Being far away from suppliers for Harken parts I had to come up with a quick fix. What I did was make 3 small SS cylinders 1" long, 3/4 " dia with a 5/16 hole down the middle. I installed the cylinders on the halyard just above the snap shackle. Now if the halyard and foil touch, the rollers are too big to get trapped in the groove and they act as bearings to allow the foil to spin past. It was to be a temporary fix, but they have been there for several seasons so I guess that it's permanent.
Bill Connon - Caprice 1 C&C 36