Sail Jamming In Luff Groove

[Lakesailor]

This has been discussed a few times recently and I thought I'd share this with you. When I bought my Solo dinghy from Searush he brought it up to Windermere and we went for a sail.
Whilst rigging it Steve had enormous difficulty raising the sail and could only get it as far as the bottom batten pocket into the luff groove.
We took the mast down and managed to get the sail up by two of us working on it on the ground.
We checked the groove for dirt or obstruction and it seemed fine. The mast was slightly dirty from an algae-type coating.

Steve Struggling

​

The other day I rigged the boat in the garden and before raising the sail sprayed each side of the luff tape with Halfords Silicone Lubricant.
The sail went up reasonably easily, the last bit being a bit tricky. Of course now the whole of the luff groove had been lubricated. When it came to lower the sail after the first foot which needed coaxing the rest just tumbled down by the force of gravity.

An excellent result from one application.

 

[Even Chance]

Yep, Im delighted too. I use it at the start of every season, and you can feel the sails getting "sluggish" by lift-out!

 

[NickRobinson]

On launching Rivendell, with the crane waiting, all I had was rapeseed oil to convince the genoa up the foil.....

Worked though-

Nick

 

[lw395]

El cheapo furniture polish works quite well.
Cleaning the slot with a rag and some polish when the mast is down helps a lot too.

The sheave at the top of dingy masts often gets worn or the sheave box gets damaged in a capsize.

 

[Searush]

Yeah, it used to go up & down OK. I was quite surprised to find it so difficult, but it has never been lubed before - so perhaps that will do for another 5 years!

 

[Lakesailor]

The enormous advantage of using silocone was that the overspray which fell on the "chalky" side deck grp brought the colour back a treat!!

 

[aquaplane]

I have been told that one sailmaker thinks that silicone lubricant is the spawn of the devil.

Sails that come in for valeting with silicone marks on go out with silicone marks on, it doesn't come off. Punter then complains that the sail hasn't been cleaned properly.

It may be that the sailmaker just isn't valeting the sails right but I don't know.

 

[lw395]

The enormous advantage of using silocone was that the overspray which fell on the "chalky" side deck grp brought the colour back a treat!!

I trust you have no plans to paint the deck?
Silicone is a nightmare to remove before painting.
Having said that, we spray whole spinnakers with it.
It makes them shed a bit of water and slide down the chute.

 

[Lakesailor]

No. Not painting the deck. Gets too much abuse. I did start compounding it but that was a lot of work and the silocone seems almost as good. If I was to compound the silicone "treated" area it would probably come off.

But paint. No.

The probability of me having the sail laundered is slightly less than that of me attempting to anal-fist a male crocodile on the Nile.

 

[NPMR]

Candle wax is great too.

Every year we rub a candle up the mast track, but only as far as we can reach. Then when we put the sail slides in they drag the wax to the top.

Works a treat and the sail always simply falls down with gravity when putting it away or reefing. Lasts a whole season but is desperately cheap and easily available if it didn't last that long.

Can't remember who told me about it but it's one of those really useful tips that seem to clutter up my brain.