Fully Battened Mainsails - Cars/in-mast sliders

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LORDNELSON

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I would be grateful for advice about the type of "car" or "inmast slider" to specify for a fully battened mainsail
I am about to order. One sailmaker has recommended in-mast sliders ("Sailman 4000") - which seem a
theoretically good choice but I would very much like to hear from someone who has used them. My mast is
44 feet deck to truck and the sail area is 250 sq.ft. Many thanks
 
A view

I have heard good things about the sailman cars (BT challenge boats use them) and you do need something like this with fully battened mains.

However, I too am looking at new sails and a common suggestion from many lofts is to go with a 50/50 option with fully battened at the top and semi on the bottom half which means you can use normal slides.

This is the way im going....when i get the money together!
 
I fitted cars to the main of my 32 footer last year. I sail shorthanded and wanted to make thinks as easy as possible. Pulling up the fully battened main was a struggle on occasions.

I went for the Harken variant that fits into the existing mast slot without the need for a track. This was both simpler and cheaper than the tracked version.
If I had my time again (and the extra money) I'd give more consideration to the track version. My current arrangement has ball bearings on the aft face of the car (out of the mast) but not on the forward face (in the mast groove). It works fine when hoisting the main but I usually end up going forward when I drop it (into a stack-pack) since the weight of the sail isn't enough to overcome the friction between the "in mast" part of the batten car and the mast itself. It takes very little effort, to pull it down, but it does necessitate a trip forward.
 
I would be grateful for advice about the type of "car" or "inmast slider" to specify for a fully battened mainsail
I am about to order. One sailmaker has recommended in-mast sliders ("Sailman 4000") - which seem a
theoretically good choice but I would very much like to hear from someone who has used them. My mast is
44 feet deck to truck and the sail area is 250 sq.ft. Many thanks

I don't know about the Sailman 4000 but the folowing might provide food for thgought. I had a fully battened main (from Kemp Sails) on my previous boat which is 35' and used Bainbridge sliders/batten cars with ordinary sliders in between. The mast was Kemp (Selden). It worked very well, we didn't find it too heavy to hoist but I agree with the above comments on pulling it down - always a trip to the mast. The five batten sliders were just large sliders - no wheels or balls.

Our new boat is larger (38') and mainsail is about 32 sq metres (luff about 15 metres) and we have inherited a fully-battened main. It's a great sail when it's up, but getting it there is a struggle, as is getting it down and reefing, although the batten cars are ostensibly better - with two wheels each side to take compression on the mast, but with two ordinary white sliders for each car and ordinary sliders in between. I cannot live with it so have been looking at track and ball-bearing systems. It's expensive, so beware that once you start looking at these systems the alternatives are nowhere near as attractive. My mast is ZSpars and ZSpars sell such a system but I have to say that the Company doesn't inspire confidence. Having looked at Harken and Frederiksen at the boat show I think the Frederiksen looks the best.

When you order a fully battened mainsail the question of batten ends, cars/sliders is very important and you tend to get a lot of conflicting advice. In my case the sailmaker assured me that a fancy and expensive system weas unnecessary - but I think that sailmakers are wary of suggesting anything too expensive in case it puts you off ordering the sail!
 
I've never had fully battened sails on a cruiser, but I raced catamarans for many years with up to 11 battens. Hauling the sail either up or down was rarely a problem, even with a bolt rope which most use. I suspect that this is because it was well established that best performance was achieved with minimum batten compression.

So my point is: are the problems encountered with only five battens due to having them wound up too tight? I do see many examples of "starving dog syndrome" on the water, so maybe that's the answer.
 
I bought a Sigma 33 that has a fully battened mainsail this year. I was concerned as I like to single hand but the system does work very well but I would concur with the others who need a trip to the mast to pull the sail down. My problem is not the cars on the battens but the ones inbetween which are simply sliders. This winter I hope to replace these with intermediate cars from Fredriksen- I saw them at the boat show-- abouth £50 each unfortunately! I too have a stackpack and this is worth its weight in gold.

L.A.R.Ferguson
 
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