Tide marine strongtrack outside width?

[hooligan6a]

My Tides track is over 10 yo and still going strong. The best addition I put on my boat.

[mikerayburn]

I have a tides track that has failed. Guessing from UV, about 7 years. Not a thing that a single handler wants in 35 knots at night. Lucy it was at about a meter up and I was able to feed the slugs back in as I was reffing. Now I don’t know what to do? If it happens at the top. Big problem!!! So I’m looking at different systems. But big money any way I go.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by mikerayburn

I have a tides track that has failed. Guessing from UV, about 7 years. Not a thing that a single handler wants in 35 knots at night. Lucy it was at about a meter up and I was able to feed the slugs back in as I was reffing. Now I don’t know what to do? If it happens at the top. Big problem!!! So I’m looking at different systems. But big money any way I go.

Go directly to Tides. They will sell you another at cost; your SN on the block at the bottom will tell them what mold and length you need.

There is a rant by Tiger Lilly somewhere in here detailing his departure from that system (at a significantly higher cost).

I think I may have posted some pix of our failure, as well, but as we are not RTW folks, a replacement sufficed.

Mack Sails sells them, and their rep suggested that 7-10 years was about typical for full-time tropical exposure life. I consider it a consumable, but now that I know that they have UV damage potential, I will watch it more carefully to be pro-active rather than re-active to potential failure.

[skipgundlach]

PS I did, indeed, further up the thread, post pix. Here's the link, again:

Pictures: Flying Pig 2015-2018 Shake-and-Break-Down/Strong Track Failure

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by Ecos

You guys are brave. Staying out of the hurricane zone has it's costs I guess, but my psyche is intact down here.

speaking of brave .. I see Guatamala (along with El Salvador and Honduras) made the most violent murder list in the world

[hpeer]

Ours is 1-3/8”.

My suggestion is to contact Tides and get their pre-order kit. Fill out the order form and then they can tell you the width of the track you will be getting. Without doing that you are guessing. Doesn’t matter heat other have, matters what you get.

Replaced ours at 8 years, tropics. But still worth it.

The retailers need to do a better job of explaining to folks the UV issue. When asked the guy at Tides was very frank that their life span is about 8 years in the tropics. Which surprised me greatly, but sure enough ours was significantly degraded. May have been able to get a couple of more years out of it but who want a slug to pull out?

[mikerayburn]

Mines an 1 1/2 inches.