Sail sliders and mast gates

[LostinFrance]

I have a little problem with the mainsail on my new Sparcraft mast. The sliders cannot, once inserted into the luff groove and the gate screwed shut, slide back down the luff groove to rest on the boom. This has had two effects: being a short*ss I have to stand on the kicker to undo the main halyard from the headboard and secondly the mickey mouse screw and method of fixing it into the mast won't take the weight of the sail, thus screw and plate and insert ended up on the deck the second time I dropped the sail.
I have a memory of my old boat with the sliders going back past the gate so that the bottom one sits on the gooseneck, making the headboard 6 inches lower. Of course memories aren't always what they used to be so maybe I'm wrong. How is it with everybody else? Sparcraft say this is normal nowadays (not the bit falling off I hasten to add and are sending me something else to replace it)

 

[Saddletramp]

I have a similar problem. I have recently bought my boat. There is nothing to keep the sliders in when the main is lowered. Not a proble I have had before. I have googled mast gates refered to but only come up diinghy fittings.

 

[dukes4monny]

I have a gate which has a single pivot point that you have to push out of the way when you want the sliders to come out of the track e.g. when reefing.
It's difficult to describe, but imagine a stainless plate which has a shape like a NIKE tick (Google the logo) cut out of the top and a single screw at the highest point which goes into the mast which it pivots on.
This is fitted just above the entry point on the track, and when I need to take the sliders out of the track, I push the sliders up the track slightly, push and hold the gate to one side and now I can remove the sliders.

Probably not a great explanation, but it does work. Let me know if you would like a photo and I'll try and take one next time I'm down at the boat.......

 

[reeac]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a similar problem. I have recently bought my boat. There is nothing to keep the sliders in when the main is lowered. Not a proble I have had before. I have googled mast gates refered to but only come up diinghy fittings.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have the same problem with a 1936-vintage dayboat that I've just bought. One solution is to make a suitably shaped turnbuckle which is fixed with a single screw to the aft edge of the mast so that it can be set to support the lowest sail slide or rotated out of the way to remove the sail from the boat. I've just started making a hardwood one from part of the armrest from a 1960's G-Plan settee.

 

[alahol2]

The gate on my mast (admittedly, an old one) is just a plate that is bent in such a way that, when in place, it continues the line of the (internal) luff slide groove and the slides just run past it. Is it not possible to fabricate something? mine is only about 2mm plate.

 

[Twister_Ken]

My arrangement is similar to Alohol2's. Held in place with a hex-headed bolt through a slot, so it can be slacked off and moved out of the way when removing the main, but otherwise, effectively, there is a continuous track capturing the slugs.

 

[JAYEL]

The gate on my Trapper 300 has an elongated slot through which a flat headed screw is tightened down. To insert the sliders into the mast the gate plate is slid to its max travel. Once all are in the mast track it is moved back just enough to let the sliders travel past the gate , but not wide enough to let them pull back out.

 

[Pye_End]

Have you tried any other lugs?

Are the lugs sewn on, or with plastic fittings so you can easily change them?

 

[LostinFrance]

Thats how I remember my old one but I don't think the hole milled out for the sliders is wide enough to get a bent peice of plate back in and under the outside flange of the sliders. Hmm I'll have to give it a go though. I was just surprised that supposedly the entire weight of the main - albeit the friction of the sliders helping - was supposed to be held by the corner a very flimsy plate held by a 4mm bolt screwed into a kind of plasterboard fixing.

 

[LostinFrance]

[ QUOTE ]
Have you tried any other lugs?

Are the lugs sewn on, or with plastic fittings so you can easily change them?

[/ QUOTE ]

No the lugs are sewn on and the sail is new so I have no intention of changing them. I doubt that any other type would make a difference anyway.