Allen,
Is the cover open along the bottom ? Are the two sides connected just where
the slides are attached ? It must at least be open where the reef lines
attach to the boom I'd think.

"bushman" wrote in message
m...
Why I like my MackPack.
I feel the same way about the lines and cover messing up my air flow
across
the sail, but we aint racing here, we're cruising and enjoying ouselves.
I think the MackPack is good for the sail. The sail stays in the lines and
does not hang on other objects or fall to the deck to be snagged or
stepped
on. Being tightly furled and sinched down is not good for the sail cloth,
being loosely flaked on the boom keeps the cloth and stiching from being
creased. Also the sail can breath and dry out in the sail cover.
Interesting thing I learned at the Sail show this weekend. Travis Blain of
Mack Sails told me to box up my old MackPack and send $53 to have any
repairs done. I will report back when it returns.
- Allen
P.S. maybe I am just a lazy sailor.

"Garland Gray II" wrote in message
news:GN3df.237$0h5.168@dukeread10...
Allen,
Is the cover open along the bottom ? Are the two sides connected just
where
the slides are attached ? It must at least be open where the reef lines
attach to the boom I'd think.

Mine has three , two inch webbing straps that slip between the sail and the
boom , attaching to the other side with little half turn buckle. The two
halves are only sewn together at the aft end of the 16' zipper. The webbing
holds the bottom together under the foot , the zipper closes the top , and
the front hangs on hooks screwed into the mast.
The reefing lines can go under or over the cover and around the boom or
under the foot to take some of the belly out of the sail.
- Allen

Thanks !

"bushman" wrote in message
...

"Garland Gray II" wrote in message
news:GN3df.237$0h5.168@dukeread10...
Allen,
Is the cover open along the bottom ? Are the two sides connected just
where
the slides are attached ? It must at least be open where the reef lines
attach to the boom I'd think.

Mine has three , two inch webbing straps that slip between the sail and
the
boom , attaching to the other side with little half turn buckle. The two
halves are only sewn together at the aft end of the 16' zipper. The
webbing
holds the bottom together under the foot , the zipper closes the top , and
the front hangs on hooks screwed into the mast.
The reefing lines can go under or over the cover and around the boom or
under the foot to take some of the belly out of the sail.
- Allen

This thread has had several responses which I'll not repeat here, but I
wanted to ask about some issues I have with mine.

First, in the case of the grommets, I've put knots in the inner
section, the better to hold up the sides, or otherwise, it's not over
the sail when it's dropped. So, for mine, it's not held up by
friction. Something akin to a slab is needed, at least in my
application, to make it happen.

Second, if I don't have the jacks pretty well tensioned, the sail will
fall off to one side or the other when it's in the bag, so to speak -
so, I keep it tensioned, having an already-somewhat-abraded bimini over
the bows, just from the time it's spent in the yard/on the hard.

However, third, I'm about to build our awning/sunshade setup, which
will, of course, require the slacking/run-forward of the jacks for
installation. Aside from cinching down (recommended against by another
poster) of the total bag, how do you keep your sail from falling off?

Other than those items, we like ours very much. Ours is currently
attached to the mast, so when I'm up there doing other stuff related to
the electrical bits, I'll move them to the spreaders, a huge
improvement, I'm sure, in dropping. FWIW, when we bought the boat, it
had sail-tie tape on the main, just as you'd do with a
put-over-the-sail covering system - perhaps because the mackpack itself
was pretty well shot, it appeared. However, off it came, and some
mending later, it's fine. I see no reason to believe that, if one had
the concept, building your own couldn't be an easy project for someone
with the appropriate sewing machine (which we've just bought from
Sailrite, in our case, so ours will be a replacement at some point, but
the awnings are current project material!). I highly recommend it.

L8R

Skip and Lydia


Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig - Callsign Pending!
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing
about in
boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."