"IanM" wrote in message
...
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
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & 32K emails -- NUL:


Yeah... if I decided to replace, I will certainly replace them all. The diff
in work is minimal.

It was a strange day as far as reefing goes. We started reefed at the dock
(single/full jib). There was decent wind to Angel Island, but certainly not
enough to even consider reefing. We sailed directly through Raccoon which
isn't typical (usually you have to tack at least a few times). There was
_nothing_ near Sausalito or the Golden Gate. We had to turn on the engine to
keep from getting sucked out the Gate. Finally about 1/2 way through the
slot, we got about 10 kts, which built to about 15. We were much more
concerned with the ebb heading back to Richmond, so we elected (foolishly)
to cross the channel and make a left down by Bezerkely. We should have
hugged the lee of Angel. Anyway, as soon as we crossed the line from the
slot (the typical high wind area) to the end of the shadow of Angel
(typically not much wind), we were hit with well over 30 kts. It was like
someone turned on a high speed fan. We didn't see any chop except perhaps a
couple of miles ahead after we turned, so we didn't figure we'd need to
reef, as that part would be a downwind run (given the way the wind was
running). The chop built within a couple of minutes, and at that point I
elected not to reef and just push through it. It was way too dangerous to
put someone up there. If we had hugged Angel, we would have had a wild,
mostly downwind ride to Richmond, but I guess hindsight is 20/20.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com