Leechline
Georges,
The issue you brought to us originally was that you could not reach the cleat easily and certainly not the snubbing eyes...So if you pulled on the line below the cleat you would be trying to pull through the snubbing eyes which would be extremely difficult.
Per our email (below), we removed the line from the snubbing eyes and led the line directly through the cleat. I also lengthened it so you could reach it more readily.
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]As we discussed, I removed the line from the eyelets so it just runs direct through the cleat I then did a double half hitch and put an additional 6 feet of line on it. This way is should be long enough to reach and you might even tie a loose loop around the boom...[/FONT]
Now, having said that, I am sorry you are still having problems with the line staying in the cleat. Something (and I'm not sure what) is not right, as I checked the line diameter and the aluminum cleat when it was at our loft to make sure it held the line. It does.
If you are getting a lot of leech flutter that requires this much tension on the line than either the leech of the sail is 'soft' or 'let out' or you are not sailing with enough mainsheet or vang tension.
As the sail is fairly new and we have built
many from this design, I would be surprised if the the seams are not put together properly and the sail is not old enough to have stretched significantly to do this.
My guess is that you probably are not sailing with enough leech tension. If you have the traveler above centerline and a soft leech, it is a recipe for a loose leech.
I have attached a photo of a 361 PBF mainsail (same design as yours) with a properly trimmed leech in upwind sailing in 12knots of breeze. This should be a good indicator of where you need to be.
Perhaps you could send some pictures of short video of your mainsail trim for me to evaluate..
As a general rule, in 10-12 knots true, the leech should standing up as in the photo and you should snug the vang up nice and tight at this point. By putting the vang on firm when the mainsheet is trimmed correctly will help to ensure the leech stays trimmed when you ease either the traveler or the sheet.
Let me know how this goes for you and if you can send pictures or video.
Bob Pattison
NP Sails Int
I have a Beneteau 361 and at the end of the 2011 summer I got new Neil Prydes sail, Genoa and Roller Furling Main Sail with Vertical Batten. I am very happy with the Genoa but I am having problem with the main sail. I can't get the main sail leech line to stay engage in the small blocking cleat or even engage it. I spoke to Neil Pryde about this last fall at the Annapolis Boat Show and they told me to return the sail and that they would look into it. To fix the problem they extended the leech line. I still have the same problem, the leech won't stay in the cleat and the leech flutter all the time, not very nice, not helping performance and certainly not good for sail life.
I don't know what to do anymore. Anyone with the same problem? I would really appreciate your comments, suggestions please. Should I replace the sail? Very disappointed so far.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Georges
