New Main Thoughts

I really like the new main.  The full top two battens really make a difference.

The loose foot is nice, easy to hookup, easy to tighten the outhaul, as there is not as much friction.  Tightening the 5:1 internal outhaul flattens the bottom third of the sail nicely. The foot hangs down below the boom: free sail area!

I had hooked up my old backstay adjuster blocks as a 2:1 cummingham.  Worked well. 

Putting the sail up is not bad, except for the last foot or two.  Definately a problem singlehanding, as the bolt rope needs to be fed into the sail slot.  If not it jams. Wonder if a pre-feeder would make a difference?

I could not get the sail hauled all the way to the top of the mast; too much friction.  On this past weekend, I lowered the boom 4 to 6 inches to get some tension on the luff. 

Today at lunch I went the Nat's Marine and bought a can of dry lubricant.  Hopefully that will help in the hoists/douses.  I also bought a small swivel snap shackle to replace the regular D shackle and bronze swivel shackle on the haylard now.  It will be 2-3 inches less than the combination of the others. 

Also thinking that hoisting it the extra couple of inches will create some problems tacking in light air.  Tacking in light air on Friday night, I did notice that the 2nd batten hung on the backstay. It was easy to get off: loosen the backstay adjuster and shake the backstay, then re-tension it.

I have yet to play around with reefing.  Want to practice this on the dock without much wind.  Don't know if the existing reefing hook will work.  The sail does have a shallow single reef point.  Don't think this will be a problem as with the new backstay adjuster, and loose foot, I can flatten the sail effectively.  Need to figure out how to put in a flattening reef; will the exiting reef cheek block work for that?  It would be nice to rig up single line reefing.

Coming in after a day of sailing is a real effort; you drop the sail, and it falls out of the main track, and flops around uncontrollably.  Would be impossible single handing in a blow.  On Saturday, the three of us coraled it into the cabin (ouch, with that nice crinkly sail!).  We tried for a bit to flake it on the boom at the dock.  Didn't like how we were putting creases in it, so we rolled it and put in in the sausage bag that came with it.  The sausage bag fits in the starboard lazerette, but the sail sticks out into the cabin.  Rolling it is the way but can't be done by yourself.  I have watched Ross on Gruntled (a C&C 29) with a bolt rope main.  His crew disconnects the tack and clew, folds it at the 2nd batten, them rolls it starting at this 2nd batten.  They also sail tie it to the main and put the sail cover over it. I talked to him, and he sail he will not use his bolt rope main single handing.

This morning I talked with Tal (he works for Performance Sails), and he agreed that a bolt rope main is a BAD IDEA for single handing.  However, he did say that converting it to slugs would be fairly inexpensive using the plastic slugs.  A sailmaker would have to install grommets up my luff to accomodate these.

So it looks like I made a mistake in buying a bolt rope main;  that is one disadvantage to buying your sails in the states.  I did send him an email asking for suggestions.

I read online that some single handers with bolt ropes, throw in a reef before dousing, and use the pouch created by the reefed sail material to flake the sail.  Hmmm, worth a try.  Also read about a J/24 guy (single hand a J/24?) who attaches shock chord to his whisker pole, then puts the bolt rope sail between the pole and shock chord, and rolls it up that, and stores the sail rolled on the whisker pole on the boom.  This might work, as the one end of my whisker pole is a spike.

I will play around with it for the next couple of weeks before haulout, and decide if I should convert it to slugs in the off season.