Centaur Mainsail - how far to pull it up please?

[zambant]

My Centaur has a stop in the mainsail slide about 8 inches from the top of the
track.

This means that when I hoist the main the boom is VERY close to the spray hood.

I understand that the lower the boom then the more efficient the rig but any
reason why I could no move it up 4 - 6 inches and give myself more headroom in the cockpit ?

I'm re-stepping the mast on Tuesday so any replies would be most appreciated.

John

 

[earlybird]

My Centaur has a stop in the mainsail slide about 8 inches from the top of the
track.

John

Black bands, yes, but a stop is new to me. I'd remove it altogether. You need to get tension on your luff.
Try to ensure that the halyard splice or whatever doesn't suffer in the masthead pulley however.

 

[davidbfox]

I'd expect to hoist to the top then pull the boom down as far as possible like on a dinghy.

Could the stop be meant to be at the bottom - there is one on my mast that stops the slides falling out when the sail is lowered - but have accidentially got shoved up the track?

 

[zambant]

Stop

Its definatly a top stop - the one at the bottom is there and working fine.

Its just above a black band painted on the mast.

John

 

[sailorman]

Its definatly a top stop - the one at the bottom is there and working fine.

Its just above a black band painted on the mast.

John

the "Black Band" is purely for racing & marks limit of hoist of the head of the sail.
if you dont race remove the stop & ignore the band

 

[Lakesailor]

!00% then.
Get the headboard as high as you can without jamming up the top sheave and give yourself a bit more headroom. Whilst it may move the centre of pressure up a tad, you ain't going to notice. Most of the sail is still down near the boom.

 

[aquaplane]

If it's the original spars like on mine, you won't be able to tension the main luff by swinging on the gooseneck like we did on the Windrush. The tack is fixed due to the roller reefing handle going through the mast.

The head of the main needs to be able to go up far enough to tension the luff so the stop is a bad idea.

If the halyard is getting stuck in the masthead sheaves the sail is too big or the way the sail is fastened to the halyard is too long.

 

[flaming]

Its definatly a top stop - the one at the bottom is there and working fine.

Its just above a black band painted on the mast.

John

As others have said, the black band is for racing - i.e. that marks the highest permissable hoist.
However, I would be cautious about ignoring a stop above the band, as it also marks where the designer thought you should hoist to...

I suspect that your problem lies more with the state of your sail, and possibly indicates a stretched luff / leach if the sail is old - or a poorly measured sail if it is new.

Question, when the sail is hoisted to the band, is the luff tight? If the luff is tight, but the boom still droops, then you have a sail in poor condition, as the leach has stretched.

If the luff is not tight, then you have an ill fitting sail (if new) or one that is probably on its way out, if old...