Has anyone made their own sail track cleaner?

[Frank Langer]

Hi,
I'm having a bit of a hard time raising my mainsail on our E30+. I do use Mclube dry lubricant, but after a few sails that seems less helpful. My sail maker says that the various lubricants eventually leave a coating on the sail track that makes it hard to raise sails, and suggested cleaning the track first, before reapplying Mclube.
Has anyone made a sail track cleaning device that works?
Frank

 

[goldenstate]

I would try a bosuns chair and a toilet brush.

From the deck, a coat hanger and a rag, with a down haul on the halyard.

 

[HerbertFriedman]

There was an article in the last issue of This Old Boat which used a 12 inch section of luff tape jammed in into the sale track and raised by the halyard, with a line at the bottom of the tape to pull the tape back down. The tape was soaked in some sort of cleaner, like alcohol, then another piece of tape with lube on it.

 

[peaman]

I cut a piece of Scotch Brite pad and inserted it between a couple of spare nylon luff slides and attached to main halyard and a downhaul. Spray the pad generously with McLube etc, and haul up smartly a few times. Note that small stuff is looped through the two slides, while the downhaul is tied to the halyard. It did seem to help some, but I will have a Tides Marine track installed by Spring.

 

[Rocinante33]

I cut a piece of Scotch Brite pad and inserted it between a couple of spare nylon luff slides and attached to main halyard and a downhaul. Spray the pad generously with McLube etc, and haul up smartly a few times. Note that small stuff is looped through the two slides, while the downhaul is tied to the halyard. It did seem to help some, but I will have a Tides Marine track installed by Spring.

View attachment 41642

Peaman,

This is similar to what I did, but I used only a single sail slide and I cut cloth patches from tee shirt material. I soaked the patches first in soapy water And stuck it under the slide, then I sent each patch up and oscillated it up and down in the track. Then repeat with a new patch until they come back pretty clean. Next soak in clear rinse water and repeat. Finally, soak in McLube and repeat several times. It seemed to help quite a bit.

 

[HerbertFriedman]

Peaman,

This is similar to what I did, but I used only a single sail slide and I cut cloth patches from tee shirt material. I soaked the patches first in soapy water And stuck it under the slide, then I sent each patch up and oscillated it up and down in the track. Then repeat with a new patch until they come back pretty clean. Next soak in clear rinse water and repeat. Finally, soak in McLube and repeat several times. It seemed to help quite a bit.

just a question, did you use a new slide or just the one of the slides already on the sail?

 

[peaman]

did you use a new slide or just the one of the slides already on the sail?

Previous owner left a few spare slides in with other parts. See image above, where I linked the two slides with some 1/8" nylon, to make sure the scrub pad wouldn't get lost in the process. Defender has a couple of sizes of slides for $3 each and I expect West Marine will have them as well.

 

[Rocinante33]

just a question, did you use a new slide or just the one of the slides already on the sail?

I used a spare track slide. They are only a few $ at W. Marine.