Another Slab Reefing Question

[david100952]

I have a Jaguar 22 in which I have spent my first season sailing. The mainsail has a bolt rope which runs in a track up the mast and I always find it a bit hairy when lowering sail and try in vain to gather it neatly on the boom. Watched the sail raising competition at Excel and suddenly noticed that the hanked on main they used, more or less folded itself as it came down and I am thinking of visiting my local sail loft to have it converted. It is not a crisp new sail however and I would appreciate some advise as to whether I would accomplish anything for my hard earned cash.

 

[VicS]

Certainly a mod that can be done. Not even impossible to do it yourself. I have often though of it for my own boat but never quite got round to it. You need to decide if the mast track is suitable but it will almost certainly be possible to get slugs that will fit. You either need some form of "gate" where they enter that closes to stop them coming out again or a pin that passes through the bottom of the track to stop them coming right down to the bottom. As it so happens my mast is suitable, in fact it would be better with slugs than with its existing bolt rope. It even has the necessary pin provided (been danging there redundant all these years)

 

[doug748]

Lazy jack lines from the boom to the mast will help control the sail, it is a fairly simple DIY job on a small boat. I had a bolt rope job once, and a prefeeder (sort of jaw will rollers fitted near the goosenck) helped with the hoist. Remember the bolt rope leads to a more efficient sail shape and is also aerodynamically better. Tho' this theoretical niceity may not worry you on the Jag, esp it you do not race.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I modified the mainsail on my Leisure from boltrope to sliders as I had a boom rolling system for furling which was very slow and unwieldy. It was fairly straighforward and I submitted an article to PBO on the procedure (which was published in the mag).
The only problem was getting sliders to fit the track. Eventually I got some but had to file them down slightly.
The completed job was very worthwhile and made sail handling much easier. I also fitted another reefing point and a slab reefing system.
I didn't notice any loss of performance although theoretically sliders are less efficient.