Sail raising

[islandplanet]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

How do you go about cleaning and lubing the track? Well regular grease attract dirt and end up gumming up the works?

Never use anything other than SailKote or comparable product. I stick with SailKote because it works and we always have a supply on hand.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by islandplanet

Never use anything other than SailKote or comparable product. I stick with SailKote because it works and we always have a supply on hand.

G'Day IP,

Do you spray the sailkote or use some sort of wick that you hoist up the slot?

Cheers,

Jim

[SV Demeter]

I found sailcote or mclube a waste of time. Yeah works okay for a little bit but a few good rainstorms and its gone. I use small amounts of teflon grease on the slugs as i installed the main and mizzen this srping. So far I dont see any dirt accumulation but I didnt heap the stuff all over the place.

[SV Demeter]

Originally Posted by islandplanet

You'll need to have someone set some grommets in the luff or buy the tools and grommets. You can use regular nylon slugs for most of it but I would go with Alslip slugs at the head, battens, and above the reef(s). I would web the slugs on. If you don't place much value on your time, it's a fine DIY project, but it's really not that much money to have a sailmaker take care of it.

I don't know how many full batts you have but I'd check the spacing with one slug between each batten and see what you come up with. 24-30" is what you're looking for.

I'd estimate $125-150 if you wanted to have it done. If you're doing it yourself, I'd guess about 6-8 hours unless you've webbed on hardware before. You'll want to buy or borrow a hot knife and use a good quality sewing palm. If you go the easy route and use shackles, stay away from the plastic ones and get metal.

Fully agree here. You dont want to do this yourself unless you have experience. The length of the lashing or webbing is critical or the slug/slide will tilt and bind. The webbing needs to be loose enought to tow the slide from the correct angle. This is a job you leave to a professional sailmaker with experience.

Also I did not realize the freedom was a rotating mast, that makes a stronger case for something like a battslide. I have full battens on my entire main on the ketch and hoisting is no problem unless im trying to do it off the breeze. I find like when shaking a reef I head up some, ease off the sheet some then hoisting is no problem. Roatating mast probly makes a difference here so I woudl defer to other freedom owners.

[alar]

Hi again. So I have gone round and round trying to get the correct size slug to put on this mainsail . The width of the slot is slightly less than one eighth. So I ordered several slugs from sail rite to try get get one that will work. None of them work because the bolt rope rail is too narrow. So has anybody have any have any experience taking that rail off and putting something like a bat rail system or a rail on the carbon fiber mast? Again I have a freedom 85 sailboat with the rotating carbon fiber mast. Thanks

[islandplanet]

alar,

This might help you - http://sail-making.com/dbimgs/Track%20Slides%20US.pdf
Have you tried an A016S or A017S? Getting a waist narrower than 1/8" limits your options. You could also try something like the A031's but your stack height will increase.

I have a massive kit of sample slides I use to match hardware on customer sails or test in the track.

As I mentioned previously, this is a pretty low cost job to have done by a sailmaker and it would save you a lot of frustration. I'm not sure if you can do it yourself and save all that much money because the retail prices of hardware are pretty high and you'll need to buy the tools to set the grommets. Personally I prefer using Super Rings for the luff grommets and that's not something you can do yourself unless you spend a lot of money on a press.

[islandplanet]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

G'Day IP,

Do you spray the sailkote or use some sort of wick that you hoist up the slot?

Cheers,

Jim

Have done it both ways. Sometimes the best thing to do is just go aloft and clean the track. You can end up needing some type of solvent if it's really nasty from inappropriate lubricants being used in the past. It doesn't take me that long to go aloft so no big deal just going up the rig and spraying periodically.

On my own boats I rig a turning block that gives me a nice lead to the windlass so if I have help, it goes really quickly. If you're going up using anything motorized, have the person on deck stop periodically. You don't want to find out the switch or relay is faulty when you're a foot from the top. On some boats you can use a halyard winch on the mast as a turning block to bring the halyard to the windlass. People have been gravely injured using powered devices for hauling a person aloft. It's essential that the person on deck is thoroughly briefed on signals and how to kill power to the windlass.