"CaveLamb" wrote in message
...
Copy all that, Wilbur.

I have a boltrope with a slug at each end of the foot.

The one I think I may need to add would be at the foot of the luff.
(I think you had the picture of it right from what you said)

The tack/luff pulls aft below the bottom luff slug, which is a bit
over a foot up from the tack corner.

The tack fitting is an inverted U thing that pins through the
gooseneck laterally. It can swing fore/aft. So any pressure
on the sail, or tension on the outhaul, pulls the bottom tack corner
of the sail aft of vertical (of the rest of the luff).

That seems to be the source of the odd wrinkle at the aft end
of the shelf.

I tied a line through the tack ring, around the mast, and pulled
the foot forward an inch or two. That made the shelf look a lot
better.

Will take a closer look at it in the next few days and discuss it
with the sail loft before messing with it though...


My boom has a similar arrangement but with one caveat. The inverted-u tack
ring on mine can be reversed. Doing so will effectively move the tack
cringle fore or aft about half an inch. You might try that little trick. The
reason for this arrangement with the tack connection moved somewhat aft on
the boom gooseneck was due to the fact that the boom, when end-boom sheeting
is employed, can be used as a roller reefing boom with the sail winding up
around the boom. But, mine has mid-boom sheeting and a traveler above the
companionway that precludes the wind-up function because of the mid-boom
sheeting bales on the boom. But, the boom can rotate on the gooseneck and
the gooseneck can also slide up and down in the sail track. I have the same
situation as you do when lowering the sail. The boom sort of hangs on the
lowest sail slug against the slug stop in the top of the gate with the boom
about a foot lower pulling on what's left of the sail. So, since my
gooseneck slides up and down in the track, I simply use the downhaul line as
an uphaul to raise it up to the bottom of the gate. No more stretching of
the sail and a more compact sail stack under the sail cover.

The best thing about the sliding gooseneck is when hauling up the sail I use
no downhaul so I just pull the sail up to the top black line on the mast.
The gooseneck slides up to almost the bottom of the gate. Then after making
fast the halyard I push down by hand on the boom at the gooseneck until the
luff is properly tensioned according to prevailing winds and cleat off the
downhaul line to keep it in place.. Simple as pie and no messing with
winches to get the luff tight enough.

Wilbur Hubbard