380: Removing main sail on 380

[Zoid]

It's my first winter and I'm removing the mail sail because it collects water. Thought it would be better to keep it in the bag rather than on the boom. I started to take it down today, but couldn't figure out the best way to take the cars off the track on the mast. There appears to be a section of track that is removable after taking off a steel rod that holds it in place (picture below). I removed the rod, but the piece of track is not coming off. I talked to a FP catamaran owner who had a similar setup and he said you remove the Alan screw in each car leaving the cars on the mast track (picture of alan screw on car below). This might work, but seems odd as there has to be a way to remove the cars in case they get damaged. I thought I’d check to see what other 380 owners do to remove their main.

Thoughts?

Zoid

[monte]

eeek, dont remove the cars Kenny!
you will be slipping around on ball bearings like a cartoon character on ice !
Yes the small piece of track is used to replace the cars, but its a tricky process. The cars come on a small piece of track to keep the ball bearings in place and then you carefully slide the cars on the existing track.
Yes remove using the allen key. We left our main on over winter though. Maybe disconnect the halyard so you can zip the lazybag fully closed and tighten the lazy jacks so it doesnt hold water. Should be fine in Sardinia.

[Zoid]

Ahhh very good advice. Cars stay on then. I might try and just leave the main sail on and wrap it up nice and tight. While we're on this topic, any reason I wouldn't take the genoa down? The less UV exposure the better in the long run I figure.

[monte]

Yeah Kenny, and tie so e fishing line to the halyards and pull the halyard right up so they're protected in the mast. Use strong line and tie it well so you can pull them back do. Next season.
Enjoy the hopefully warmer winter than les sables!

[DavefromNZ]

Incidence Sails use Sunbrella but rather sparingly. They miss the wrap around of the leach cord so after less than 3 years it deteriorates to holes every 4 inches over the entire length of the leach!




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[Zoid]

Just this morning another catamaran owner here was on the net asking if anyone knew where he could get some ball bearings for his mast cars because he tried to remove them and lost about 10 ball bearings over the side. Wish I had shared your advice with him.

I've checked out the other 380's around here and most appear to leave the main, wrap it tight, and cover the end of the boom in plastic for the winter. It also appears most take their jib down, which is my next task, unless anyone has any reasons why I shouldn't do that. Don't want to make any mistakes that I could have avoided.

[LTDsailing]

Definitely take the jib down. If you have high winds and it starts to un-furl, you will have a shredded jib. This also gives you a good opportunity to inspect the sail.

[Stephen P]

I had a rain of ballbearings when a sail maker slid the cars off the track. Each little ball was expensive and stupidly hard to reinsert. I certainly learned the hard way. In the end I removed them from the batten end that join the cars and that was a very easy operation.