While reading rec.boats.cruising, I noticed Don W
felt compelled to write:

Well, on my boat the only reason we have to turn into the wind is because
the sliders on the mast rail bind otherwise. I guess that if you had some
kind of roller system that could take the side load without binding instead
of sliders, the sail would come down or go up easily as long as it wasnt't
binding on your rearmost standing rigging.

That would be nice IMO. I wouldn't be surprised to find that somebody makes
such a system that will replace my stainless steel and plastic sliders, but
I haven't run across it.

I use full battens terminating into Rutgeson battcars (it is important
to only have cars on the full length battens to be able to do this,
intermediate sliders or cars will bind in the track), and with a
downhaul rigged can reef my 10m Farrier Trimaran off the wind in up to
20kts. Neat for effortlessly dropping the main neatly into the
lazy-jacks at the end of the day, too.

http://www.rutgerson.se/downloads/sa...Fullbatten.pdf

Ian