170 Main Sail

[John C. Pierce]

I am new to this site. I have a hunter 170 with a 2HP engine. I sail in Long Island sound. I use the motor to get off shore. My problem is that it is difficult to put up the main sale and keep the boat into the wind. Part of the problem is that my mainsail has what I will call pegs made of plastic along the seam that go into the mast. As I insert these (the pegs not the seam) in the groove in the mast and pull up the sail, the pegs get wedged in the groove. This makes it very difficult to lift the sail up the mast quickly. Any suggestions?

I though that I might try a Hunter sail for their 140 model as this sail has a continuous seam that fits into the mast and makes it easy to hoist the sail. This is a smaller sail (this is OK with me) but I am not certain if the seam will fit into the groove of my 140. The 140 is essentially the same as the 170.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you.

John

 

[Tim R.]

John, those are sail track cars and it sounds like they may be the wrong size for the track. Or it could be dirty and need cleaning and a good shot of McLube. They should fit into the slot with little play but loose enough to move freely. Not so loose that they can wedge themselves diagonally.

The 2009 Jeaneau I chartered last week had cars that went up fine but had trouble coming down. You had to pull the main sail down by hand.

Here is a photo of some different cars. Do yours look like any of these?

Photo courtesy of practicallysailing.com