Capt. JG wrote:
"Capt. JG" wrote in message
easolutions...
I've got a couple of additional questions if you don't mind...

You were talking about your boat having the SailTrack (tidesmarine)
system? I was chatting with them about what it would take for my boat. I
asked them the approximate cost and it came back as something just shy of
$1K. I have 13 intermediate slots that go into the track plus the head and
tack connections. I have 1/2 battens, so no batten cars are needed, just
the regular cars. Of course, I also need the track material, but the cost
seems high. They go by the mast height from the boom, so I guestimated
36', and thus the $1K quote.

Did you investigate other alternatives? Is that on the order of what you
paid? I'd like to get something sooner vs. later at this point.

I was sailing her last Saturday (two instructors, me, and an advanced
student). We had sustained wind of over 30 kts with higher gusts. She
handled it beautifully, even though we had chop that was nearly as high as
the dodger...almost 10'. The choplets were coming pretty quickly.. every
few seconds. We didn't have a drop of water get below, but everyone got a
shower. We were single reefed both on the main and the jib was reduced. I
would have gone to a second reef, but the wind came on with no notice and
it was too dangerous to send someone up there. In the process, we snapped
five of the mainsail slots, but there was no sail damage.

Here are some pics...
http://picasaweb.google.com/SailNOW....eat=directlink


Ummm... slugs not slots... not sure why I typed slots.

Replace *all* the slugs if they are more than two years old They are
almost certainly suffering from UV degradation and should *NOT* be
snapping. I've been caught out in worse conditions with too much sail
up before and had no failures at all. I'm not going to lecture you
about reefing, that's Wilma's job . . . ;-)

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
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