loosening jib halyard on roller furling

I always release the halyard tension after furling the jib, and then tension it again before un-furling. I am not sure a tensioned halyard explains the wear you see. I woukd wonder whether the halyard has the right angle to the exit block, if the angle is too small, I would think the halyard would be trying to wrap, perhaps creating wear at the exit box even if the tension is enough to prevent an actual wrap. For example, my recent furler setups have all had a halyard retainer ( basically a strap) below the exit box, to ensure a wide angle at full hoist.

Thanks for the post ... can't picture how a halyard retainer would work. Is that a commercially-available product, or did you rig it yourself?

My boat used a padeye when I bought it. The wire (rope/wore halyard) sawed through it in under 5 years. So I instaled a proper restrainer....

Right tools for the right job. You may save a few dollars using a padeye or similar, but I would use a restrainer as a restrainer.

I always slack any lines that have tension on them at the end of the sail (typically the jib halyard when using a roller, backstay and outhaul).

Leave everything snug, not flopping around, not like a guitar string. Hand tensioned rather than winch tensioned.

When we first transitioned to roller furling from hank-on jibs after acquiring our (then) '76 Cal 2-29, we were advised that furling worked best when one had a tight head stay and a slightly eased halyard. Following that advise, we have found that we have little difficulty furling/unfurling even our largest head sails and releaving the halyard while the sail is furled takes the compression loads off the bearings in the furling spindles. Once unfurled, a few cranks on the halyard is all that's needed to tighten the luff.

FWIW...

I'm sure few will agree, but I still use wire/rope halyard. When I bought my T 27 in 2001, it still had the original 1966 halyard! I figured, what the hell, it lasted that long, I'll stick with it. So I bought another.

The weight does not bother me - she was designed for it!

SKywalker