Roller furler failure modes..

[groundhog]

What would you say the most common modes of failure are for roller furling headsail mechanisms?

[sailingfool]

The owner does not furl the sail tightly.

A big breeze blows up and the wind pressure pulls out part of the sail, the more sail that gets exposed, the harder the pull. Eventually enough sail is exposed so the resulting wind force brakes the furling line, unit, drum or whatever component happens to be the weakest for that design, and the sail unrolls and is destroyed.

When the owner comes down and sees the ruined sail, he complains that his furler broke...

[T34C]

If by failure you mean a furler that isn't functioning correctly, I would say halyard wraps and incorrect lead angle of the furling line causing jams.

[dsbentley]

The sail is furling properly and tight enough, its just getting very hard to pull it in as opposed to years past. I am thinking the bearings are going bad?

[Coghead]

Originally Posted by sailingfool

The owner does not furl the sail tightly.

A big breeze blows up and the wind pressure pulls out part of the sail, the more sail that gets exposed, the harder the pull. Eventually enough sail is exposed so the resulting wind force brakes the furling line, unit, drum or whatever component happens to be the weakest for that design, and the sail unrolls and is destroyed.

When the owner comes down and sees the ruined sail, he complains that his furler broke...

This is especially bad when the boat is on the hard, the wind gets really high, sail unfurls, picks the boat up and slams it on the ground. I have a friend who, with two other guys, witnessed this happening so they boarded the boat, and tried to get the sail under control. They all took the ride down with the boat! Fortunately, all escaped serious injury.

[sailingdog]

DS-

Check your halyard tension and your backstay tension. Both of these can affect how difficult the furler is to furl. Also, have you done the annual maintenance on the bearings as required??? If not, that could be it too.

Originally Posted by dsbentley

The sail is furling properly and tight enough, its just getting very hard to pull it in as opposed to years past. I am thinking the bearings are going bad?

[speciald]

The split ring on the top swivel of my Harken furler came apart once producing a rain of expensive plastic ball bearings. I would guess that the most frequent problem you could have is having an over-ride in the furling line caused by not keeping sufficient tension on the line as the sail un furls. When you then attempt to re-furl the sail the line jambs. Next would be a wrap of the hailyard at the head of the sail.

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by dsbentley

The sail is furling properly and tight enough, its just getting very hard to pull it in as opposed to years past. I am thinking the bearings are going bad?

Could be that, two reasons I experience are: not enoguh haloyard tension or bearings that require lube getting a little dry or dirty.

[knothead]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

DS-

Check your halyard tension and your backstay tension. Both of these can affect how difficult the furler is to furl. Also, have you done the annual maintenance on the bearings as required??? If not, that could be it too.

Halyard tension may affect the furler, especially with Harken but the backstay tension has no bearing on it. No pun intended.
Also, Profurl has sealed bearings, there is no way to maintain them.

[sailingdog]

Knothead-

You're right... the backstay tension affects my screecher furling unit, but not the genoa one... the screecher is a wire-luff furler and backstay tension definitely can muck up whether it works.