Posted by sean morley on May 13, 2001 at 18:27:36:
When we attempted to hoist the furling genoa on our sadler 32 which we purchased last season with the genoa already hoisted, we ran into a problem. The genoa halyard exits the top of the mast on the righthand side but then passes through a bullseye fairlead on the lefthand side before attaching to the furling gear. When the halyard is taken in to raise the sail, it rides up on the pulley on the lefthand side of the mast head and eventualy the tension becomes too much to raise the sail. The halyard that exits the mast over the lefthand pulley is a wire halyard that won't pass through the bullseye without taking it out and re-threading it from the rope end back through the bullseye. The genoa halyard enters the base of the mast on the righthand side and the wire halyard enters the base on the lefthand side which suggests to me that they were not mistakenly swapped over at the top of the mast at home point.
We removed the genoa halyard from the bullseye and connected directly to the furling gear. The sail was hoisted, but as expected, it doesn't unfurl smoothly and tends to jam.
As a temporary fix, we are considering disconnecting the genoa halyard with the sail hoisted and furled, passing it through the bullseye, reconnecting it to the furling gear and re-tensioning it.
Any ideas on how this problem may have arisen and how to address it are welcome.
Regards...
Sean