"CaveLamb" wrote in message
m...

snipped Bruce's speculation


That foot looking loose has me puzzled.
Because it does. But when I tensioned it it looked worse!

We had no tension on outhaul or vang in that run.
It looks like the foot of the sail is trying to slide aft a bit.
There is no slug at the clew, and the tack fitting doesn't pull it
forward in line with the rest of the luff. It's only an inch or so.
But it might need to be retained there better. Just add a slug at
the bottom?

And I'm going to have to come up with a gate setup at the slot where
the slugs go into the mast. There is a sail stop there now, but it holds
the stack up about 5 inches. I don't know if there are more slugs on this
sail or what, but it sure stacks a lot taller when furled!


Don't add a slug at the bottom of the luff unless you know for sure that the
tack hook is in line vertically with the mast track slugs. The tack of the
mainsail may be placed so it is NOT in a vertical line with the mast slugs.
This may be due to the fact that the tack hardware sits a few inches aft on
the boom. Mine is built that way so the sail was especially cut and the tack
cringle is four inches aft of the vertical line formed by the mast slugs.

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But, there SHOULD be a sliding slug at or near the clew. It should slide
easily and it should be lubed with silicone spray so it keeps sliding
easily. The outhaul should be used to keep it from sliding forward and to
flatten the sail as required. The track in the boom also needs to be kept
slippery. If you have slugs or even if you have a bolt-rope in lieu of boom
slugs. My mainsail has one sliding slug at the clew and a boltrope the from
clew to tack. This is a true shelf-foot. When the sail is bellied out all
the way the shelf assumes the perfect shape with no wrinkles. When the
outhaul is pulled tight the shelf assumes several folds that make it appear
to be no shelf at all. All told there is about six inches difference of foot
length between flat sail and full sail.


Wilbur Hubbard