Parted Luff Rope/Boltrope

[umu]

After a pretty rough sail to a remote Out-Island here in the Bahamas I noticed that the Boltrope in the luff of our mainsail has parted and the strip that sits over the boltrope forming a tunnel has also opened up around the rope in about 10 locations for a few mm (just the tunnel, not the entire strip, see picture). Luckily the sail itself is intact, not ripped or cracked.
The mainsail is held to the mast with sliders, the boltrope is not going into the mast groove.
Boat is a 37 footer, sail about 32sqm.

As the next Sailmaker is about 350nm away, in the wrong direction and on top would be closed until second week of January until the sail could possibly even get there I am scratching my head and wondering what to do.

1. Keeping to sail with it „as is“ seems like a bad idea to me, but maybe I am over-interpreting the importance of the boltrope in this setting (where both sliders and boltrope are fitted)?
2. Is there a chance to get the old rope pulled out and replace it by some other rope, by pulling that in (currently there is a 5mm 3 strand rope in the tunnel at the luff)? Anybody done that?? What break load would be required for the new bolt rope ?
3. As there is no chandlery for about the same distance as a sailmaker I would have to work with what I have on board. All I have at hand coming close in size is:
- 4mm generic braided rope with core, not even sure what it is made of, probably some polyester/polypropylen mix, also no idea about the break load or stretch.
- Liros Lazy - 4mm line used for the Lazyjacks, hollow braid, according to their website Polyester, breakload 500daN. It looks ok, but it had been exposed to the sun since installation on the sailbag 15 months ago, so not sure to what extent this breakload is still applicable.


We want to continue to Cuba, so repair-wise or material-wise things will not improve for the next months.

Any thoughts very much appreciated

!

 

[Daydream believer]

I do not know If I have this correct but you seem to suggest sending the sail to the sail maker. If you do not over tension the halyard it should be fine. So 350 miles is only a 3 day sail. Why not sail there? I cannot believe that the sail maker is shut for 4 weeks.
It sounds as if you are a live aboard sailor, so life cannot be so important that you have to get somewhere in a rush. Why go off with a worry constantly in the back of your mind?
Just deal with it now.

 

[umu]

Believe me, if it would just be a 3 day sail back and then forth and the issue would be resolved I would be gone by now.

But given the weather we have for the next days going back right now does not sound like an overly good idea.
On top he is closed from Friday until next year and will not be able to work on it before later in January anyway.
And then later on going back 350 miles against the tradewinds to be in the same spot I am now is another thing I would rather prefer to avoid and would probably take quite some time (given how long it took to get here).

So maybe that explains why I am trying to achieve a fix where I am and would really appreciate any input how and if this might work.

 

[neil_s]

I'm thinking: 'Next voyage, maybe it blows hard again, you will want to wind on the luff tension to flatten the sail'. A few hours of that and your luff will start ripping. A patch folded over the weak part of the luff with lots of stitches in the material and the luff rope would fix it until you can get a better repair done. Have you got a repair kit? Can you buy some suitable bits and pieces? It doesn't have to be fancy sail stuff, a bit of heavy canvas, a bodkin, or matress needle and some whipping twine might do it.

 

[umu]

I'm thinking: 'Next voyage, maybe it blows hard again, you will want to wind on the luff tension to flatten the sail'. A few hours of that and your luff will start ripping. A patch folded over the weak part of the luff with lots of stitches in the material and the luff rope would fix it until you can get a better repair done. Have you got a repair kit? Can you buy some suitable bits and pieces? It doesn't have to be fancy sail stuff, a bit of heavy canvas, a bodkin, or matress needle and some whipping twine might do it.

My line of thought was to find a way to replace the boltrope that parted, thinking that the luff tape is actually not able to take any signifcant load in the direction of the halyards pull anyway. The boltrope actually slides inside the tunnel formed by the luff tape and these cracks rather seem a consequence of the parted rope and then the sail beginning to stretch, now taking the entire load. So if a rope is back in and intact these cracks might not matter that much (and I do not have enough Dacron to be able to patch all of them).
But of course that‘s just the line of thought so far, maybe it‘s not correct.

 

[wilkinsonsails]

In your situation ,I would find a wide enough polyester webbing (Could be a sail tie ) and hand sew it over both the parted boltrope and the luff tape. You don’t have to do it all the way, just bridge the damage areas .
A simple cross over stitch would work .

It’s perished on the bends as the outer extension of the curve of the luff tape weave, ,this probably has suffered from UV degradation.
Fixing correctly would mean luff eye removal and a complete re tape.
Best done in a sail loft .

 

[wilkinsonsails]

If you need info further info Pm me .
Cindy

 

[umu]

If you need info further info Pm me .
Cindy

Thanks you so much, PM‘ed you!

 

[Refueler]

I had a sail do similar ... and I found that the boltrope was only fixed at the ends ... once I undid the stitching - I was able to pull out the old - which being end stitched to the new - pulled replacement rope in. Once in place it was seized and stitched to fix.

The boat was sold on years later still with that sail in perfect order.

Its worth checking the ends to see if you can do that.

Just a note : If the boltrope was in the groove instead of slugs - I would have carried on using it as is until repaired.