Sidney Ashford
PostedÂ
Problems encountered when raising the Main Sail on the 17/3
Main raised through new mast feeder and luff groove could not get the bottom part of bolt rope through and in to luff groove
SEE photo
We untied the clew outhaul and unclipped the tack to allow the foot of the main to slide along the boom so that the sail can be lifted for the bolt rope to slide down the luff groove.
This would indicate that the entry feeder is too high in the luff groove
SEE photo
We tried many ways to resolve this but could not find an alternative
We took the feeder out and tried again but came to the same result
We then decided to extend the opening as you can SEE from the photo we still have to remove the tack pin at the gooseneck so that the bolt rope can be lifted and then located, down the luff groove
Is there a problem with the mast design in that the feeder location is too high in the luff grove?
Looking at the Selden web site on the sail entry pages they all show the entry much lower than 400mm in the luff groove. Why?
SEE photo of the mast with tape
Taking into account all that I found should the feeder be about 200mm from the gooseneck?
As you can see that the bolt rope is not properly protected now at the bottom of the cut in the luff groove can you supply me the metal feeder so I can put this at the bottom of the cut out?
The only other solution is hoist the main all the way, then push up the rest of the bolt rope in to the luff groove so that they can travel down the mast. And then feed the foot of the main into the boom groove which is stupid.
Please find attached Photos
Your help in this resolving this design problem would be appreciated
Mark Taylor
PostedÂ
The bottom end of Saraband’s luff rope sits just above the bottom of my cutout……..when lowering the main I have to remember to flick it to one side or the other to make sure it doesn’t drop into the lower part of the luff groove. I am always surprised that when I bang on the cunningham that I don’t have an issue with it catching on the lower edge of the cutout, but in 17 years, it hasn’t, yet!!
One thing that might help is that quite a few of us have dispensed using the tack pin and now have another heavy duty slider that drops into the mast groove. That enables the headboard to get to the black band without over-tensioning the luff, although be careful you don’t over hoist it past the line. That will then lift the tack 1-2″ and you have sorted your problem. On my Goacher main I found I had to have teh slider tied about 0.5″ off the luff rope otherwise it pulled the tack too far forward
Particularly on the Goacher main it makes the tack area of the mainsail look a lot better, removing for example that line that is going down left to right in your picture, just below the existing luff slider. Some people have a light line that ties the now free floating tack down to the tack pin, others including Steve Goacher himself, just let it float free, sliding up and down the groove as required.
Hope that helps.
Mark
Saraband 8314N