I greatly prefer the sail slugs. They make the sail go up and down smoother. They also allow you to leave the sail inplace, on the boom and mast - the standard sail cover setup...
Fairwinds wrote:The slugs will slide a lot easier, make reefing easier. Spray the sail track with a dry silicone lubricant to make them work even better..
The ability to raise and lower the sail quickly and store it easily on the boom, is a great benefit. You can then leave the sail on the boom when trailering, making take down and set-up much easier..
Agree with the others. Slugs are the way to go. Also, if you set up your mainsail halyard to run aft to the cockpit, the slugs are a must. This setup is not possible with a bolt rope feed.
Now if I could only hoist the main without getting the halyard caught on all those over sized bolts on the mast along the way up
I think if I cut off the excess, that might help.
Common problem. It usually helps if the halyard is really slack before heading into the wind. That way, the wind usually blows it free of the bolts and when you put tension on it, it will not get caught most of the time. Not sure if you want to start cutting bolts on the mast
If the nut loosens up just a bit and there is no bolt end...
I'm not the handiest guy by a longshot, so perhaps someone else could chime in. Just my gut reaction that it may be a bad idea, but I could certainly be way off base.
2 Run two nuts down onto each other and tighten them together with two wrenches
3 Put an oversize flat washer under the nut and bend one ear up to lock nut in place
4 Tooth washer or castellation
5 Gall the end of the bolt so that the nut cant come off..this doesnt involve an act of violence against a person of French persuasion, that would be Gauling....
