Mainsail Track Cars and Reaching the Sail Head

[AlanO]

The PO left us with a goofy rig for the lower part of the mainsail. We have a Tides Marine Strong Track. A number of the lower mainsail eyelets are not attached directly to cars (slugs). Instead a rope is run through the plastic connectors (sorry, I don't know the technical term for these). To have one car for each eyelet for direct connections we would have to add 6 more cars. I suspect that part of the reason the POs went with this set up is that the head of sail is difficult to reach. I can just barely reach it standing on a single fold-down mast step. An additional 6 cars would be another 6 inches or so to reach the head of the sail and make it impossible for me to reach and attach the halyard, which is also used as the topping lift to aid the rigid boom vang when not attached to the mainsail.

My current thinking is it would be best to buy the additional cars (wow are they pricey!) and make the direct attachments to the sail eyelets. The head of the sail goes to the black mark on the mast, so it appears there is about a foot of extra distance between the head of the sail and the halyard sheave. Is it a reasonable solution to make a short cable pennant that remains attached to the head of the sail, then attach the halyard to the pennant? Any other options I am not considering? I suppose adding another mast step would be an option, but that seems more complicated and I'm not that excited about climbing higher on a potentially pitching deck.

 

[Dave G.]

My first thought looking at the pic is why would they reduce the luff length by a foot and a half or more ? That aside have you considered removing the Tides track and going back to the "old" track ? Internal sail slides are pretty short and the sail would stack much lower. I of course don't know if original track is still in place behind the Tides track but I think it just slides into it ? I also don't know if you have all full battens in your main which the Tides helps with. I have about 5' less of "P" than you 2 full 2 partial battens and no issues with raising/dropping main with the factory internal track. Just my 2 cents and that's about what it's worth

 

[Christian Williams]

I don't think you need a pennant at the headboard. The halyard is the pennant.

The Tides system is defeated by such a jury rig. Tides requires all the slugs to be Tides, and there are special slides for headboard, full length battens and reef points. I think you can install the webbing yourself, but I had a sailmaker install mine.

Yes, the Tides system usually makes a high stack, often requiring a new or recut sail cover. Many people install a folding mast step to make reaching the headboard easier.

I'm a big fan, since original equipment sail track on old sailboats gets worn out, and a sail that won't come down is a much bigger issue than one that won't go up. So I'd stick with Tides, just fix the installation. Many YouTube videos on installation.

Also, sailmakers often have the slides in stock. You might see if they would give you a better price for a few than Tides retail--or get a quote from a sailmaker to do the whole fix-up job.

 

[peaman]

I think you can install the webbing yourself, but I had a sailmaker install mine.

On one sail, I was able to replace nylon slugs with Tides slugs myself. The nylon slugs were easy to cut off, leaving the webbing unharmed. The Tides slug, with its separate pin can then be installed to replace the old slug using the original webbing.

 

[bigd14]

That is a weird setup. Usually there are webbing straps on the sail that the Tides sliders attach to. Do the plastic loops fit the Tides sliders? If so adding more Tides slides would be the way to make the system operate correctly.

 

[Christian Williams]

the black mark on the mast

The black line marks top of "P", the luff length measurement for race handicap. Cruisers can ignore it.

But the lack of full hoist may just be so the headboard doesn't conflict with the backstay crane.

 

[southofvictor]

Our sailmaker actually decreased the number of slides on our main when he added the Tides track. He said the sail didn’t need all the old slugs replaced 1:1 with tides slugs and since install the main is much easier to handle.

I‘d suggest getting a sailmaker to look at your sail and tell you where you need Tides sliders in between the batten cars and reef points. But I’d definitely get rid of the luff rope / Tides mashup.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

The very old main that came with our boat had a similar configuration of line and plastic shackles. Being relatively new to the sport, I'd never seen such a contraption. I could never figure out it’s use, except maybe as some sort of luff tensioner / cunningham. The way they had it tied off didn't lend any clues on how to 'work' it.

With our new main sail we went with regular (new) slugs in the existing track, largely to save money. But I’ve used the Tides system on a friend’s boat and it’s very slick, literally. With an unlimited budget we would have installed one. If your main is equally old, you'd do well to develop your Tide system with an eye toward the sail's eventual replacement.