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Recent revolation or confusion? Sail tracks


Joe Nelson CS#35

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Joe, If you want sail track, halyards etc. you cannot have a 3 piece mast. On a CS 20 we rigged with sail track/halyards etc..., we used tapered aluminum flag poles.

The poles are 3" dia. at the base, and spun tapered to the head. They are made in 3 pieces for UPS shipping, with rolled bushings in each section. We epoxy glued the sections together at the bushings, so that it is a one piece mast again. We then riveted a sail track to the aft side. With a wall thickness of about .090" it is slightly heavier than needed.

If you want to contact American Flag for an outlet, their headquarters number is: 800-328-7171. They have a website, but I don't know the url address off hand.

My personal favorite Core sound mast would be like Gordy Hill's. He found some tapered fiberglass antenneas and mated them to aluminum lower sections. They have excellent bending characteristics and are lightweight.

Or you could build birdsmouth spars.

Graham

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What do you think about putting a sail track on the bottom 3" mast section, then using a sleeve above this? The idea is to get the benefit of the track (ability to shorten sail/reef) without having to deal with the track all the way up the mast.

Could maybe do the same thing by using a sleeve up high and lacing the lower sail section on.

Thinking out loud...usually dangerous

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Guest ricardo de oliveira

Hi, let me ask something adding complication to the confusion: if you have to build (?!!) a sail track using stainless steel and nylon slides, which way you choose to go, the round or the flat one?

fcb4d11c.jpg

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One could also lace above the single piece of track. I have been doing some research. Chappele has some interesting ideas in his small boat book. You can use beads on the lacings to allow the sail to move up and down easier.

But we still have the issue of the sprit. That would need to be relocated. Uphaul, downhaul for the sprit? Kinda like rigging for a spi pole? Then a longer adjustment for the snotter? Hummmmmmmmmm?

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Guest ricardo de oliveira

oh, yes, laced it's by far the easiest way, but I don't know if a laced sail will go up and down nicely with a halyard. I don't want to roll it around the mast for reefing...

Thanks for the brass advice. I do have acess to a mill. But looking for an old mast track in a boatyard...there's no such a thing around here. Boats here are 99,9% plastic things and mast tracks are extruded with the alloy masts... Do you think it's possible to do such a rectangular track shape from a stainless stell plate? And how brass will react with s.s? You know, the galvanic series...

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It would seem that lacing/beads etc. would hang on the steps at the mast joins. Don't forget that the lacing also has to get by the snotter.

Ricardo would be better off with making a wood track as he built wood masts, and put a bolt rope on his sails. I shudder at the cost of machining a track out of solid brass.

In the US Schaefer makes a SS external sail track. It's not my favourite but it's all that we can get. In Australia they used to make 5/8" and 7/8" internal aluminium track with nylon slides which runs much smoother than metal slides on metal track.

You can drill a hole through the sprit in the right place for the reefing line from the clew. To reef: Ease the halyard, ease the snotter, pull on the clew reefing line and cleat off, pull on downhaul, tighten halyard, tighten snotter, sheet in and sail fast. For this system the sheet needs to be attached to the aft end of the sprit.

Graham

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Best information I could find...on the net to share on reefing of sprit sails.

A personal web site

http://www.geocities.com/sanmi/reefing/reefing.html

Jim Michalak's Essay's

http://marina.fortunecity.com/breakwater/274/1999/0701/Index.htm

Wooden boat forum

http://media5.hypernet.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=001073&p=

Wooden boat forum

http://media5.hypernet.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=001506

Hope that these help. They helped me to clearify my thinking. Thanks Graham too for your comments!

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Guest ricardo de oliveira

Graham, you're very kind. People at the W.B forum was less mercyful. They didn't said my idea is dumb and useful because they are, like you, real gentlemen. But after that I'm considering the lacing concept. I'm afraid of jamming at the connection. So, if I route a rebate the same thickness of the fiberglass sleeve in the conection, so the sleeve is flush with the mast surface, I'll get a jamming free solution, right? Or is it dangerous to reduce the mast wall thickness right at the connection area? The inside pin is realy hard and dense hardwood. I think you know it as Bulletwood. It's just wood pretending it's steel...

Thanks a lot,

Ricardo

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The vertical reefing looks practical. Even jiffy vertical seems possible. Then all you need to do is slack off the snotter. reef the sail and readjust the snotter. There seems to be some difference in oppinion as to the effect of the bunched up sail against the mast has on the efficientcy of the rig...but safety seems more important than efficientcy if reefing is necessary while underway. This way there is no need for a halyard and the lacing on the mast is not a hinderance either. Now the 3 piece mast will work fine and no tracks are necessary. Should be no more expensive to have the reef points installed vertically than horizontal. Just need more adjustment in your snotter rig to accomidate the 24" or so difference in the sprit rig reefed and not reefed.

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  • 4 weeks later...

After much pondering I have reached the conclusion that I want horizontal reefing capability on my boat. I plan to run a reefing line from the reefing clew through the snotter as described by Graham in an earlier note on this thread. There will also be a halyard and downhaul.

The issue then is how to get the sail to fold nicely along the luff end. I am reading in this thread concern for the laced sail making it smoothly over the mast joins. The bead on the laces is a neat idea. But I am wondering if the top half of the sail luff could be sleeved, then lace the section that would be involved in the reef, then perhaps sleeve the bottom few feet of the sail.

Hopefully this would put the sleeving over the mast joins, and yet provide the lacing in the section that would need to fold to make the reef. My concern is for keeping good sail shape at the sleeve/lace transitions.

Any thoughts or upgrades?

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