Although I have a bolt rope... Not to mention that with a bolt rope the luff "pinches" into the mast groove when being raised. You need to hold the bolt rope down and flush to the mast to prevent the "pinch". When trailer sailing with slugs on the main luff you just do a pre-feed without hauling the sail all the way up and then tighten in the stop. Securing the main with slugs is now allot easier to do directly to the boom with sail ties. Now when you motor out and are clear of the harbor, you simply untie the sail ties along the boom and, up with the main. A quick snug on the down-haul and/or cunningham, sheet in, and away you go "toward that horizon".... I keep thinking about the conversion to slugs myself as well but with a 15' it's not all that difficult and a bolt rope does give a cleaner luff when the main is up. Dunno. Ashley M15 # 478 Morgan Hill, CA --- Timtone <tim@timtone.com> wrote:
In my experience using the bolt rope instead of slugs has been a hassle and converting to slugs is one of the first things I do if the sail doesn't have them. A bolt rope won't let the sail flake properly without removing from the slot and takes more effort all around...raising and lowering.
That was my initial thought on the two options. I was thinking the rope direction would allow for easier, non assisted action. But as you say, the rope option messes with a good flake. ~:0)
The slot on your mast should have a stop in it to keep the slugs from falling out. The stop is basically a slug with a thumbscrew to tighten or loosen and adjust at will. The stop is otherwise never touched until you want to remove the sail from the boat. The boom should be close enough to the slot to let you raise, lower and flake the sail without feeding. It's a matter of matching slug size and type (round, barrel, wire, solid, shoulders, etc) to the slot to make the sail slide down without help.
Right. I have some slug stops. A couple came with the boat and I have one from a restoration project I did last winter. But....in this case....I am beginning to think the problem here is the location of the opening. If I stopped the slug movement (hehehe) at the top of the opening with a stop....the stacked sail would be too high off the boom to flake worth a hoot. Now I am thinking....maybe the opening is correct and with a stock main the whole boom is substantially higher...like about 6 or 8 inches higher....and just below the opening. Perhaps when Mike Leonard had the North racing sail made the luff was increased to a maximum usable length....? I do know that when the main is hauled all the way to the masthead, there is almost no downhaul movement as the gooseneck is almost already at (what looks like) the stop jam cleat for either downhaul, clew reefing line or Cunningham. This is the last thing that stops downward travel of the boom or gooseneck. Hmmmmmmm. I do have a stock main somewhere around here.....I am going to take some measurements.
The plot thickens.................
Thanks Wcpritchett@aol.com
Tim D.
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