I’ve had a few days out now, with my self-installed Sailtrack. I can confirm that the sail raises and drops more easily than it did before the installation.
I do still have to winch the last 25-35% of the sail at the raising. It’s easier than it was before.
On the way down, the last 25% of the narrow sail is impaired in part by the stiffness of my Dacron. I still have to jump up to the mast to manually flake the upper portion, but I’m not sure if that could be avoided.
The sail slides that I sewed on with webbing from Sailrite seem fine and hold the sail evenly along the mast:
The other knock-on effect is that the slides are taller than my old ones, and so that has affected the fit of my sail cover.
The belly of the flaked sail now hangs out like a [fill in you favorite character/occupation] who can’t quite get his shirt down over an ample midriff.
I hope to add navy Sunbrella extensions to the cover at some point to make snapping it around the boom easier and tidier.
If I’m careful I can still get all of the Dacron tucked up and out of the UV light. Satisfactory for the present.
