Hi, Roger, et. al.,
"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
"Skip Gundlach" wrote
..... and try to ameliorate the butcher job the guy I had our new
main sent to last year, the worst end result being that the battens
catch on the way up, others being mere nuisances.
If you find a way to keep battens from catching on lazy jacks on a
marconi main, other that hoisting quickly exactly when the wind
centers the sail, please let me know what it is.
I've rigged my lazy jacks to stow out of the way secured under the
reefing hooks and set them up just before lowering. It's quick and
easy but might not be on a larger boat with a bimini. I've
recently experimented with hoisting with the lazy jacks set up. It
works well with a crew briefed to steer so the main centers but I do
a lot of single handed hoisting in the tight quarters of the harbor
so usually just let the sail dump on the cabin top so I can hoist
quickly without being exactly head to wind. Even though the sheet
is free, the sail doesn't seem to center between the jacks unless
there is a helmsman steering the boat back and forth.
The problem with my sail is that Sail Care disregarded our very
detailed discussions and instructions and CUT OPEN the closed pockets
we had ordered (it could have been as they altered it, free), and
added Velcro pulls for adjustment. The specific I instructed was to
just use the battslides' bolt tensioner.
That protrusion, past the end of the sail, plus the fact that the
batten now protrudes from the surface of the sail, is what catches.
With any port wind, they foul. With a starboard wind, there's no
problem, because the sail itself doesn't catch. Then, of course, they
had the nerve to charge me for it, as well as another element which
could have been done at the factory/loft, free, and, then, adding
insult to injury, instead of using the intermediate, bolt-on slides,
they taped standard slides through the (half as many as ordered,
making flaking a real PITA) grommets (would have been free from the
loft) they also installed and charged me for.
I also have the ability to drop and pull parallel to the sail cover
the jacks; if I can't solve my problem, just dropping the starboard
side would cure it. I'm just ****ed and curse him every time I have
to raise the sail. Dropping it, with the strong track system I
installed, is literally, in an emergency, a matter of freeing the
halyard and letting go - it's down in less than a second. To be fair,
I've not tried it under stress (windy, not into the wind) but I'd
expect the same results.
However, given the butcher job they did on my slides' locations (far
too few, regardless of sewn or bolted), the bottom ~20" - and all the
way to the top at ~15" - folds (that's 40" down to "only" 30" between
slides!) don't flake nicely, and the battens usually don't lay flat,
or are inverted from the proper position. Now that I've redone the
lazy jacks, flaking it as I come down is much easier, but the new
locations have the ability to catch each and every batten, DAMMIT, MF,
!Q@#$%^&*
If they'd just done it as specified, I would not have the problem.
So, as to yours, a solution which I'm considering may also work;
sewing some sort of flap over the Velcro protrusions so that there's
no crevice in the sail/batten point.
BTW are you going to turn SPOT back on?
--
Roger Long
We'll not turn on spot again until we're moving; then, we'll try your
sequence and hope for the best.
--
L8R
Skip
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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