hi
I have another newbie question ;)
At the moment this is a two man job. One person pulls the halyard from the cockpit whilst another person feeds the sail slugs into the mast track. What way can I set this up so the sail slugs are always in the track and I just hoist the main from the cockpit?
I have seen these little screw stoppers you can put in the track, but I think my main may sit out of the top of the boom bag if i use these.
Any ideas

put the lugs in before you start drill a hole through the track so you can put a pin through to hold it up. Or as mroning sun said put a plate over the exit to prevent the lugs coming out.

CoolRunnings said...
Your main topping lift looks like it is on quite tight and will not help the mainsail shape.
You may consider taking it forward and along with the lazyjacks ,hooking these onto the reefing horns, out of the way.
This also helps with less disturbed airflow over the main.

Both headsail and main halyards are also on way too tight for the light air as in the picture.(see vertical creases coming from the headsail tack).
In those conditions they should be slack.

Finally where is your boom vang?

Cheers CR.

That pic was taken the day we got our new sails and rigging so no boom vang. Good point about the topping lift and halyard tightness.

You may need to increase the size of the boom bag to allow for the height of the sail above the gooseneck when you have stopper in the track to hold the mainsail slides. I have a similar setup and have made a new boom cover that is high enough to cover the sail when stored on the boom. But then I only have 5m of luff to deal with!

Sail tuning is a whole book of its own, but the rule of thumb in lighter breezes is "when in doubt, ease it out" - halyards, sheets, outhauls....

I have the round slugs as slides on my mainsail and would be interested to know what people recommend for reducing friction on the luff track - I have heard about vaseline but I think it might attract dirt, salt etc?

hey keen sailor, your lazy jack set up is very poor. you should as frant says have battens ( I used 2 pieces of 16 mm conduit with timber pushed inside sewn into canvis bag. with zip full length .
support the lazy jack lines from the mast and fix in 3 points along the sail bag( you will have to tie the bag to the end of the boom). This allows to have boom hanging from lazy jack lines( you can swing out of the way) and have pin through mast track to hold down slugs. you will have to alter the lazy jack bag to accomadate .
This has been one of the best improvements in cockpit area to my boat as I can unhook mainsheet and clip to side stay with out having to have rear stay tensioned( also out of the way) VERY handy for fishing and storage of main on boom full time
with a well silicone sprayed slug track uphaul and down haul are 1 person and very fast.

what sort of boat ?

I hate hoisting mAins from cockpit....best place is at the foot of the mast with autopilot on or someone on helm/tiller....only takes me 40 seconds 11 mtr mast.....just insert a track screw before you depart for your day sail and remove it after your trip....all good

HaveFun said..

KeenSailor has a Northshore 27 by memory. Correct me if I'm mistaken KeenSailor

yes, Northshore 27

Ramona said..

This my main sail cover. Has 20mm conduit along full length of the cover, the lazy jacks attach direct to the conduit in cut
away sections. My zipper only goes 110cm back from the mast. When the lazy jacks are hauled tight like in the photo when I leave the boat for the day, there is a gap about 20mm through which the sun can shine but only for a few minutes each day. This way it airs out and there is a draught through it.

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yes that makes a lot of sense, the main sail can just drop down in with the cover being supported like that

The bag design is pretty poor as mentioned. If you are concerned the stack height of the slugs is ridiculously high after you have placed stopper. You can fit a few plates to fit either side of slide cut out to capture the slides and let them fall down to a lower level.

Galatea said..

The bag design is pretty poor as mentioned. If you are concerned the stack height of the slugs is ridiculously high after you have placed stopper. You can fit a few plates to fit either side of slide cut out to capture the slides and let them fall down to a lower level.

If the track cutout is for slugs only it will be just above the gooseneck. If the cutout is designed for an internal boltrope it will be higher up on the mast. Often there will be a slug cutout which is wider than the boltrope cutout which enables the slugs to pass over the boltrope cutout without falling out.

HaveFun said..

I admit it was me who said a Northshore owners forum or something for owners to know about each other and share ideas and experience. So I will set about to so do and post a message on the forum when the site is up and running. About to set sail from Sydney next Thursday heading for Mackay so it might not be til I get back at the end of of the month.

thats great!

My sailbag and lazyjacks on my ns 27 look the same as Ramona's setup. Works like a charm. I know the previous owner spent nearly 2k getting it right.
A northshore owners forum would be awesome. Im here to help get that of the ground. I know when I had my previous boat, a Careel 18 the careel forum www.careel.com was a priceless treasure trove of information and knowledge and a great bunch of people aswell. All forums are a great and hats off to everyone who contributes to them.

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