Hard to raise mainsail
- Thread starter Bronte
- Start date
Use a dry lube like McLube SailKote on the slugs and in the track. Cleaning the track with a little McLube Sailkote on a rag that you pull up and down the track can help. You can make a cleaning cloth that fits the track and is hauled up using the main halyard and pulled down using another attached line.
My H356 could be a bear to get up. That boat had in mast furling so I only had to raise it a couple of times a season. You can use dry lubricate spray which helps some. But if the mast is up it is difficult to do much above the first spreaders. I would do the sail as it went into the track if I had a helper.
You should take out any pre-bend as that doesn't make it easier.
The best track system I've ever encountered is the Tides Marine external track or similar product. On a 34 J boat I used to sail on I could have the main up in 10 seconds and it only took a few cranks to set the luff tension. I'm sure it's pricey but I would judge it as a value. How often do you decline to sail because it's such a hassle to put the main up?
You can go electric winches but my concern with them is tearing of damaging the sail or other hardware with all that forces.
You should take out any pre-bend as that doesn't make it easier.
The best track system I've ever encountered is the Tides Marine external track or similar product. On a 34 J boat I used to sail on I could have the main up in 10 seconds and it only took a few cranks to set the luff tension. I'm sure it's pricey but I would judge it as a value. How often do you decline to sail because it's such a hassle to put the main up?
Sail Track & Slide System by Tides Marine - Sail Care
Are you having trouble raising or lowering your mainsail? We have a solution to your problem! The Tides Marine Sail Track & Slide System is a high performance, low friction mainsail luff track and slide system built to handle the increased loads and demands of today’s full or partially battened...
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I used to use any dry silicone lube and would run a rag up and down the mast slot. Also, check your slugs and make sure they are not broken, split, etc.
I eventually bought a new full-batten mainsail and North Sail suggested the Tides Marine strong track... a HDPE track that slides into the mast slot and really heavy duty stainless steel slugs that work great.
And then, just because I am lazy, I raise the sail with a Milwaukee Right Angle 28M drill and a winch bit...
I went out the other day with my buddy...his boat has a Seldon in-mast main... and I was on my Oday with the traditional main. I had my sail raised and was bearing away before he had his main unfurled ;-)
I just noticed @shemandr posted before I got mine sent... another vote for Tides Marine.
Greg
I eventually bought a new full-batten mainsail and North Sail suggested the Tides Marine strong track... a HDPE track that slides into the mast slot and really heavy duty stainless steel slugs that work great.
And then, just because I am lazy, I raise the sail with a Milwaukee Right Angle 28M drill and a winch bit...
I went out the other day with my buddy...his boat has a Seldon in-mast main... and I was on my Oday with the traditional main. I had my sail raised and was bearing away before he had his main unfurled ;-)
I just noticed @shemandr posted before I got mine sent... another vote for Tides Marine.
Greg
Yes, but two improvements.
- Make a track cleaner out of a length of luff tape and two grommets. You can glue on cloth for a tighter fit. Easy to haul up and down.
- Either a solvent (xylene for wax and grease) or soap (for dust, bird and bug junk) will work even better. You will need to rinse the soap out or it will be sticky.
It could be a seized masthead sheave. Fix it. (Commonly the sail will be easy to drop and a bear to raise, because of the difference in load on the sheave--a common tell.)
Hi Bronte.
Do you have an internal track that runs a bolt rope or bullets on the sail.
If you have slides that run on an external track, check all the slides for wear or twist. You should be able to see a damaged or worn slide, One bad slide is all it takes to bind the haul up. Replace any suspect slides.
If your track is internal I will ramble on and add one of my old posts.
Gary
Do you have bolt rope or slugs?
If slugs, check then all for attachment and damage.
Do you have an internal mast track or an external mast rail?
If it is internal it could be restricted at the choke point by salt, sand or some other build up.
To both clean and check the condition of an internal track I highly recommend the
AMAZING DOCTOR GARY'S FREE TRACK CLEANER.
You need about a foot of rough cleaning rope that fits the track pretty snugly.
Parallel to the rope you whip on a piece of lighter line that is 2 or 3 inches longer at each end (See Pic 1).
There should be an eye in each end of the lighter line.
The whipping will make the diameter of the rough cleaning rope even snugger in the track.
Connect the main halyard to one eye and feed cleaning rope into track. (See Pic 2)
Connect a light down haul line to the bottom eye.(See Pic 3)
Haul up a yard or so and haul down a few times then repeat as you raise the line up the track.
Pay attention to the spot where you think the sail is binding.
When you have cleaned the whole track haul the cleaning rope
down , spray it with track lubricant and repeat the haul up/down to lube the complete track.
Will take 30 minutes to make the cleaner and 30 minutes to clean and lube the track. I do it once a year as a part of maintenance.
Good luck
Do you have an internal track that runs a bolt rope or bullets on the sail.
If you have slides that run on an external track, check all the slides for wear or twist. You should be able to see a damaged or worn slide, One bad slide is all it takes to bind the haul up. Replace any suspect slides.
If your track is internal I will ramble on and add one of my old posts.
Gary
Do you have bolt rope or slugs?
If slugs, check then all for attachment and damage.
Do you have an internal mast track or an external mast rail?
If it is internal it could be restricted at the choke point by salt, sand or some other build up.
To both clean and check the condition of an internal track I highly recommend the
AMAZING DOCTOR GARY'S FREE TRACK CLEANER.
You need about a foot of rough cleaning rope that fits the track pretty snugly.
Parallel to the rope you whip on a piece of lighter line that is 2 or 3 inches longer at each end (See Pic 1).
There should be an eye in each end of the lighter line.
The whipping will make the diameter of the rough cleaning rope even snugger in the track.
Connect the main halyard to one eye and feed cleaning rope into track. (See Pic 2)
Connect a light down haul line to the bottom eye.(See Pic 3)
Haul up a yard or so and haul down a few times then repeat as you raise the line up the track.
Pay attention to the spot where you think the sail is binding.
When you have cleaned the whole track haul the cleaning rope
down , spray it with track lubricant and repeat the haul up/down to lube the complete track.
Will take 30 minutes to make the cleaner and 30 minutes to clean and lube the track. I do it once a year as a part of maintenance.
Good luck
The drill is pretty expensive, but the winch bit isn’t too bad.
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Just search for a winch bit. The one I bought (but I cannot find online now) replaces the chuck. I was having problems with the chuck unscrewing from the shaft when using the drill in reverse. I have a 2-speed winch on my cabin top, so use the drill in both FWD and Rev when raising my main. One was is high speed on the winch, and as I get close to the top, I change to slow speed on the winch for more power and less speed.
I DO NOT recommend trying to crank someone up the mast with the drill though. The advertise it, but I burned up a switch in the drill trying it. But it raises the sail beautifully.
Greg
The first time you clean it, it will take a few hours. Every season after that will be much faster. I've found that a magic eraser makes it very fast. I've used Boshield T9, WD40 Dry Lube and SailKote. I liked the WD40 the best.
Plenty of good info, but I wanted to follow up on thinwater's comment on lines lead aft. Yes, if you have your halyards running back to the cockpit, they will require extra attention. So.. over the years I've found that releasing the vang, cunningham and mainsheet to take pressure off the sail was mandatory on my 40 year old boat. But, even with that sometimes I'd have trouble till I saw a rigger lubricating my neigbor's masthead halyard sheave. That doesn't get done often since most of us rarely go up the mast.... If you only go up once yearly, that's still regular enough to lube the sheaves... My time aloft was essentially limited to haulouts when I had the yard guy do an inspection. So.. do that. Now the path back to the cockpit can make a number of turns... three for sure, four or more not unusual.. so.. every place the halyard wraps around a wheel or fairlead .... give it some attention.
Finally, we've already mentioned a lot of friction points, but there's another that's common with older boats.... that's the size of the line in the blocks. Over time the old double braid can swell if it's left out in the elements. They may actually outgrow the width of the sheave, creating more friction. If that's your case then consider a new halyard in your future. Although wire to rope isn't popular anymore, besides its limited stretch advantage, it worked well because the thin profile wire ran smoothly. Older catalina's used the wire to rope method to allow them to use narrower sheaves up top to accommodate multiple halyards run internally. People would change out their halyards over time, wanting the all rope option that offered less weight aloft, still keeping the stretch factor similar to wire. Here's the problem... they based the rope size on the spec sheet... So they'd look at the old wire to rope and see they needed xxxxxx lbx break or working strength and then go out and buy the club level dacron double braid, and they end up buying a line that is way too big for the sheave up top, and since they can't really see it operating but it is still moving.,, they think it's fine and go on to the next project. Eventually the oversized line will bind up or jump out out of the sheave and get wedged in between it whatever it's next to.. and ....yep.... you can picture it, right.
The solution to avoid that is if you have an older boat that might have had wire to rope halyards......then make sure the diameter of your new, all rope halyards are sized properly up top, besides elsewhere. I my particular case, the max diameter of the masthead sheaves allowed a little over 1/4", the previous halyard was the very common, 1/8" wire 3/8" rope!!!!! So just going 3/8 was not good, so I tried 1/4" NER sta set X (NOT RECOMMENDED, BTW), The 1/4" was inadequate.... felt aweful in the hand, too small for the existing cam cleat so I had to use a horn,.... then there was that crappy rope..
I ended up building a "tapered" halyard where I sheathed a 3/16" dyneema single braid core with a basic 5/16 dacron cover. Works like a charm and the 3/16 dyneema runs really well through the blocks, and the dacron cover over the lower 1/2 of the halyard feels good, cleats well and the winch loves it.
You might find an article or two I posted quite a while back describing the rather easy construction of a tapered halyard. The other method is to strip the cover from a high tech double braid, such a Warpspeed II, to accomplish same end..... and double the cost
.Going to the gym wouldn't be a bad thing regardless.
Seriously, the older I get the happier I am that I have some time in a gym. It has made a difference in ability sail and maneuver around the boat. I am by no means a gym rat, just an old sailor who found a fitness program that worked for me.
I assume you used two people at the winch; one to operate the drill and the other to tail?
Yup, that's a good bit of power.
Self-tailing 2 speed primary, plenty of wraps on the drum. picked a friend to go up who weighs 70 pounds less than me…and we still burned up the switch.
I am now climbing the mast on the main halyard using 2 ascenders. Slow, but steady and pretty reliable. Haven’t quite got the Gri Gri figured out as it would make coming down so much faster ( but not too fast).
Greg