Can't raise mainsail???

[Lucid]

Hi. Lovely day yesterday for the first main raising, gusting to 5 knots, dead flat offshore SW. Baby asleep below, admiral also taking 5. So I connect the boom, using the halyard as a topping lift (ill install a topping lift after I get a MRS to lift and drop solo) . I can see the gooseneck is raised about a foot. The original bolt rope feed widening is blow the gooseneck. The main sheet just kisses the front of the Bimini when centred - made to measure. I lay out the main on the deck and low and behold, it has had slugs fixed and is a free footed sail. Cool that's one thing I thought I'd do but don't need to, now I'll get lazy jacks, run the halyard back to the cockpit and bobs your uncle I'm solohanding while the admiral parents.

Time to raise the main and Instead I'm scratching my head, look again, scratch again, put away main. so can anyone see a solution
M26 mods-05
M26 mods-02
M26 mods-03




A plate has been screwed over the track widening. (With steel self tappers rusted in, that'll be fun removing) Does this mean I have to drop the mast and feed the sail in from above and raise the mast with the sail on/ Or am I meant to unscrew the plate to raise / drp the main?

Seems like a design to keep the main living on the boom, but there's no lazy jacks anywhere that I can see..... not for soloing obviously

[Lucid]

15 edits and I got pics showing up hosted but flikr

[Spector]

Maybe it was set up with the Macstack?

http://shop.bwyachts.com/product-p/2306-1v0.htm

[sailboatmike]

I have no idea why (apart from lifting the boom to clear the bimini) they would do this, just seems a bit strange to reduce the sail area by so much just to have a bimini.

You have probably figured by now that the boom gooseneck should actually sit below the sail feed slot

[whgoffrn]

Unless I'm seeing something wrong ....that is a good thing that is on the mast....well other than the rusted screws....its so the slugs can slide all the way down the mast without coming out when you reef .... a sailstop doesn't allow quite enough slack to leave all slugs in and still reach the hook ... I've bought that exact same part from bwy but have yet to drill and tap the mast

And yeah the only reason I could see to raise the boom is to clear a bimini .... I just sail with the jib only if I need bimini up

[Lucid]

Unless I'm seeing something wrong ....that is a good thing that is on the mast....well other than the rusted screws....its so the slugs can slide all the way down the mast without coming out when you reef

ok it has a purpose, sounds like I will need it too. But how do you feed the slugs into the track? Or remove when you want to drop the mast? Unscrew the plate or from the top of the mast?

I keep my 26 on trailer mast up in boat yard with ramp at RQYS si o reckon I'll drop the mast maybe 4/5 times a year.....

<edit> there's no working load on that part of the track, BWY refer to the item as a "mast gate" so I gather it is meant to be unscrewed each time the sails come off the mast. Otherwise it would be riveted in place and wouldn't be called a gate.

[whgoffrn]

Yeah just unscrew the plate to feed the slugs up the mast once all slugs are in bolt back down ....so when the main sail is down all the slugs will go all the way down...it makes reafing much easier

[Phil M]

I have the same system which I prefer over using a sale stop. Unscrew the plate to put the sale slugs in, then tighten the screws again, just enough to hold the sail slugs in.

[sailboatmike]

But, But, But the boom is a mile too high, reducing sail area which also means you cant run standard sails or you have to run with the lowest reef in all the time, well thats if you have upgraded sails with two reef points, if you dont you either have to have your sails cut down or run on the one and only reef which is about 20% of the proper sail area.

If you worry the slugs coming out their are two easy solutions,

Put a jack line on the bottom of the sail (description here http://www.catalinadirect.com/index.cfm?feature=34 )

Or

Make a sail feed slot cover

Both will work and both are far better solutions than all the messing around with unbolting the gooseneck every time you want to pull the sail off

[DaveC426913]

I'm interested in this jack line for my but I'm not entirely sure how it works.

The description says it would be tight when the sail is fully deployed, and slack when reefed, but I would think it would be the other way around.

Is it taut when the sail is fully deployed because you need it to keep the luff against the mast? i.e. because you no longer have any use for the bottom three slugs?

(And you'd still need to go forward to tie off the first reef point.)

[sailboatmike]

The jack line is just a line that is connected to the luff of the sail for about the last 2 feet before the foot.

The slugs are attached to the line rather than the actual sail
This allows the slugs to go to the sail track stop but the foot of the sail to be pulled down further so it can be pulled tight when reefed by either being put on a reefing hook or tensioned to the block if using a single line reefing system

Have a look at about the 3minute 35 second mark of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dL-63b3ULE

[Lucid]

Maybe it was set up with the Macstack?

http://shop.bwyachts.com/product-p/2306-1v0.htm

This and comments below have got me thinking. Being a TS noob I don't know about lazy jacks, stackers etc but here is a great DIY video for making a sail pack, with video at the start of it in action under sail.

Thanks all I'm now getting a picture of the way fwd.

[Tomfoolery]

It seems odd that the boom was raised to clear the bimini. I would have modified the bimini to clear the boom. In fact, my Dowsar bimini just clears the boom. It's short fore and aft, but it's adequate.

Was the sail modified to reduce the length of the luff, was it actually cut shorter? Or is it basically reefed?

And lose those carbon steel screws which are rusting away. Use the SS screws at the original entry. And why are there pop rivets in the holes below the entry, with nothing under them but the mast?

[sailboatmike]

It seems odd that the boom was raised to clear the bimini. I would have modified the bimini to clear the boom. In fact, my Dowsar bimini just clears the boom. It's short fore and aft, but it's adequate.

Was the sail modified to reduce the length of the luff, was it actually cut shorter? Or is it basically reefed?

And lose those carbon steel screws which are rusting away. Use the SS screws at the original entry. And why are there pop rivets in the holes below the entry, with nothing under them but the mast?

Looks like another "previous owner poorly thought out mod" which is one of the things I find about the Macs as many buy them as a first boat with little or no expreience