On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 16:46:58 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

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 think I paid right around $25 a foot. That was a few years ago. They
include all the slugs, etc in the price. You might try negotiating a
little on the lack of batten cars, as those are obviously more
expensive then the 1 inch slugs. I had looked at the other systems,
such as Harken's, but they all cost a LOT more, and didn't seem to
have much advantage, if any. On a 70 foot boat, the Harken roller cars
might be worthwhile if you were raising the sail manually, but these
days, 70 foot boats have power furling mainsails, so even there, the
Tides would be great. The Harken may be 'slightly' better, but the
Tides is a mile better than stock, and very close to the Harken at
half the price.

I am completely happy with the strong track and have no regrets. It
was money well spent.