You have to remove the sail every time with that sort of setup because you
will find out that, unlike the alternative system of external track and
slides, there is nowhere for the rope luff of the mainsail to gather up
ssince it is held straight in the slot.
It can be a bit slow hoisting the main when you are doing it alone as you
need one hand to feed the sail in and the other is occupied pulling the
halyard. The halyard hand can only pull 3 feet or so before you have to use
both hands to enable you to take a fresh grip.
There are devices available to help with the feed-in of the luff rope but
you will still probably have to assist manually from time to time as the
sail will tend to be spread well out and give a poor lead into the feeder.
Yes, remove the rudder or it will be trying o break loose every time a wash
comes in and if you remove it you will not need to paint it with
antifouling.
Also tilt the outboard out of the water after use or all manner of marine
growth will take holdand ifiltrate the water intake to cause problems
Edgar


"sandy" wrote in message
ups.com...
We recently became the proud owner of a Neptune 16. We are keeping it
in the water on a lake in NE Washington. I've made a sailcover for the
main but find that the mainsail (which has a rope luff that goes in the
mast slot), comes out of the slot when I lower the sail. Is there some
sort of sail "stop" made for this type of rigging so I won't have to
thread the sail into the slot every time? Or is there some sort of
improvised thingie that would do the job?

Also...As we are keeping the boat in the water for the season, any
suggestions on what I should be doing to keep boat in good shape.
(Like....should I remove the rudder or leave it in the water? Raise
the outboard out of the water every day? We will probably be using
boat 2 or 3 times a week.

Appreciate any suggestions. As Hubby is disabled, I'm doing it all
myself and would like to not make any stupid mistakes. Thanks!

Sandy