I have a couple ideas already... so I am just throwing these out to see what you folks think / may suggest otherwise.

I have a couple of furling lines that lead back from either furler on my foredeck... one for the jib, one for the stays'l.

Neither one carries a terribly heavy load when furling... and both are using 1/4 or 3/8 line (can't recall which). Light stuff. The way the line run now is nearly direct along the sides of the boat, just under the inside edge of the cap rail. No turns, and quite fair along the way... until the furling lines get to the cockpit... and that is where the "fail" occurs.

The last turning block is about 1 inch or so in diameter, and it is set up in such a way that the line has to wrap about 270 degrees around the block...

If I grab the furling line in front of the block... the friction is quit low and I have no problem hauling in the jib. If I grab the line at the cam cleat (after the block) the friction is such that I almost need a winch to furl the jib. Now this is really silly as we are only talking about a difference of about 2 feet as to whether I grab ahead of or aft of the tiny turning block... but it is a convenience thing. Being able to control the line right at the cam cleat is nice... but the load is too high.

So I saw that on a sister boat they made a large diameter thing that looks like a winch, only without jaws or a winch handle hole in the top, as a turning block... rather complicated affair that required some custom wood work and I don't know what to make this thing. It looks like short winch. It acts as a turning block.

My thinking is that a large diameter block at the same location as the current 1 inch diameter block should work just fine and reduce the friction considerably. All I am trying to do is change the fairlead a bit and reduce the friction induced on that tiny block by the change in direction around it. So all I need is a small line block with a large diameter wheel. (is such a thing made?)