Rutgerson Battcars?

[PaulJ]

I guess I am just getting old but I find it a real strain hoisting the Mainsail, partly because it is just bl**dy heavy but also because there is just too much friction in the system. It looks as though this Main has reach the end of it's useful life and I am looking at getting a new one made and a sailmaker here in Greece has suggested Rutgerson's "Battcars"........ Metal cars with little wheels on the OUTSIDE of the mast track. Has anybody used these cars and are they any good....... Do they significantly reduce friction?

 

[wilkinsonsails]

We use them often for fully battened mains.Provided they are a good fit on the mast and your halyard sheave is working well,you will have a noticeable improvement.
One of the best tracks for getting your main down quick, it's the Strong track or Tides marine .We have that on both my cat ketch masts,you let the jamber off ithe cockpit and the sails are down in seconds, without any help from the crew.
This is easy fitted to your existing spar and supplied with the slides to go on to your sail.
Rutgertson sliders ate around £40 each depending on the connector required to fix to batten box or sail eye.
Strong track and slides at £20 per foot.
Cindy

 

[sailorman]

I guess I am just getting old but I find it a real strain hoisting the Mainsail, partly because it is just bl**dy heavy but also because there is just too much friction in the system. It looks as though this Main has reach the end of it's useful life and I am looking at getting a new one made and a sailmaker here in Greece has suggested Rutgerson's "Battcars"........ Metal cars with little wheels on the OUTSIDE of the mast track. Has anybody used these cars and are they any good....... Do they significantly reduce friction?

i have Freidrekson & they are superb not cheap but good

 

[KenMcCulloch]

Our new-to-us boat has a fully battened main, can't remember the brand of the batten cars but they are simply sliders. Before today's sail we gave the slides a good spray with silicon/teflon stuff and both raising and dropping the main were strikingly easier.

 

[Norman_E]

I have them, and they are much better than simple slides, on the full batten mainsail. One thing that made a vast improvement however was replacing the old rather stiff halyard with a new one made from Marlowbraid. The new halyard runs over the sheaves much more freely than the old one and the sail drops all the way without having to be pulled down at the mast.

 

[Martin_J]

PaulJ - They are a great help for the parts of the sail that seem to press forwards into the mast (such as the full length batten areas) as you hoist or lower the sail.

The Contender (located in Fareham) brochure (21Mb) on pages 32-35 shows that as well as the full length batten versions with various batten receptacles they have some that will cope with luff tape type fixing as well.. They have to be correctly chosen to fit your mast groove. As with luff sliders - there are many different sizes. Perhaps your current slides were not correct for the mast slot hence a sideways movement causing stiffness.

Link to a Contender brochure showing the Rutgersen range
http://www.contender.co.uk/Products/Resources/Contender_HW_2008_Iss1.pdf

This photo shows a Rutgersen in use on a full batten...
http://www.westawaysails.co.uk/datasheets/rutgersonbattcar.pdf

Hope this helps....

 

[TQA]

I guess I am just getting old but I find it a real strain hoisting the Mainsail, partly because it is just bl**dy heavy but also because there is just too much friction in the system. It looks as though this Main has reach the end of it's useful life and I am looking at getting a new one made and a sailmaker here in Greece has suggested Rutgerson's "Battcars"........ Metal cars with little wheels on the OUTSIDE of the mast track. Has anybody used these cars and are they any good....... Do they significantly reduce friction?

I have these on a full batten main on my 44 footer. It goes up fairly easily provided I am dead into wind. Dropping with the lazy jacks is easy to although the last 1/3 has to be pulled down.

 

[exfinnsailor]

They take up more room in the mast track and tend to be used for mains with full length battens. Because they take up more room the sail sits higher when its down. Worth checking how the stack pack fits. Decent can of teflon spray will get the sails up and down easier. If you can hoist someone up get them to spray all the way to the top.

 

[ytd]

I have these on a full batten main on my 44 footer. It goes up fairly easily provided I am dead into wind. Dropping with the lazy jacks is easy to although the last 1/3 has to be pulled down.

+1

 

[grafozz]

battcars

I have used Rutgerson cars on my Zspars mast for many years , When they were first selected they were the best fit I could find and they did help , a big improvement over std slides. when I had a new even bigger roached F/B main the cars were struggling , the main HAD to be dead into wind before it would drop . The reason for this was that although the slides were a good design they did not fit the mast track well and would kick off the the side which made the car wheels jam against the outer mast surface .
Also the original Rutgerson cars were made with an aluminium "T" where the loads were transmitted from the batten box to the car , this was a real weak spot , and several sheared , insufficient metal at a highly loaded point . I took them all apart and made a SS "T". This made them far stronger , later Rutgerson cars now use the same type of SS links that I fabricated.
These cars are now relegated to intermediate slides (no battens )and I have gone to Bainbridge slides which are a much closer fit , Sailman 4500 series ?
All working well now , but if I was starting from scratch I would definitely buy a Tides Marine track system , very well spoken of in the multihull world.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

i have Freidrekson & they are superb not cheap but good

Now called Ronstan, same stuff different name.

 

[Gordonmc]

I have Rutgersons on the mainsail (ketch) and they make a big difference. I have six full battens and the main goes up far more easily than an my previous boat which also had batten cars but of an inferior design.
When I got the boat one of the batten cars was missing some of its parts. Replacements were easily sourced from Westaways sails in Devon. I understand Rtgersons are made in Italy.
Good kit.

 

[sailorman]

Now called Ronstan, same stuff different name.

http://www.ronstan.com/marine/range.asp?RnID=324

 

[Stork_III]

I have Rutgersons on the mainsail (ketch) and they make a big difference. I have six full battens and the main goes up far more easily than an my previous boat which also had batten cars but of an inferior design.
When I got the boat one of the batten cars was missing some of its parts. Replacements were easily sourced from Westaways sails in Devon. I understand Rtgersons are made in Italy.
Good kit.

Rutgerston Marin are Swedish company