Replacing mainsail bolt rope with sliders/slugs

duncan99210

duncan99210

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The mainsail on my Hurley 18 has a bolt rope on it at the moment. That means I need to be at the mast to hoist the sail as the rope needs feeding into the slot on the mast. I‘d like to fit sliders (or slugs) to the sail so that I can hoist and lower the sail from the cockpit. The question I have for the assembled multitude is what distance should I be aiming for between the sliders? Should I keep the distance between sliders the same all the way up the luff or can the distance increase towards the top as the sail shape changes?
Any guidance would be helpful before I get to the stage of fitting them to the sail only to find out I got it horribly wrong....
 
Flake the sail centred over the foot bolt rope,laying the battens as flat as possible along the boom line .
Then mark the centre of each flake above the tack eye .The flakes should be no more than 1 meter wide or slightly less .
 
a previous owner did that to our boat, but the cars jam in the bolt rope slot if mainsail is not directly fore/aft, a major PITA. i ended up splashing the cash and buying a plastic sailtrack that slid up the bolt rope slot, which is v good...
 
Around about a metre between them on my wooden masted Folkboat. I swapped for exactly the reason that you're considering it, and haven't regretted it ever.
The only important thing was to get the correct slug, obviously of course, but I didn't 1st time...?
 
Keep the spacing the same all the way up. Spacing between approx 650 - 750 mm.

Before you get stuck in check your mainsail foot will not be too long once you have added the slides. Depending on how you attach the slides this can add enough distance to max your outhaul out.
 
I have just replaced the boltrope on Jonathan.
Those around me suggested slug/bullets, but I kept the boltrope.
The reason is that with slugs, the sail does not leave the track and bunches up much higher at the gooseneck.
This means that my nice neat sail cover would not fit and would need to be replaced or altered.
I have two guide balls just below the mast track entrance.
I go to the mast, pull the sail into the track and fit a teak wedge into the turning block at the base of the mast, which prevents the sail from sliding down and out.
Then go back to the cockpit and hoist at my leisure.
I find that lubricating the track two or three times a year is sufficient.

I wonder if you would have the same sail cover problem?

Gary
 
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I have always stuck with just the bolt rope in the mast. I have a fairly efficient guide device. You can get ball guides mine is home made of bent 4mm ss rod welded to a flat flat mounted in the gap where the mast track was cut away. But yes it often needs attention at the mast but then I always sail with crew.
However if you go for slugs much depends on if you reef the main from the cockpit. if you do you will need a way to remove the bottom slug/slider or possibly omit the bottom slug/slider for that luff part which will be folded down with a reef. (first reef at least). Yes if slug/sliders are to be left in the track you will need a gate of some sort and a sail cover shaped to rise up to cover the sail part at the mast. As said spacing of slugs is dictated by the size of the folds of the sail when flaked down. ol'will
 
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