Mainsail

[Tom]

My mainsail on a 1981 30' will not hoist al the way. seem to be binding about six inches before fully up. This is my first summer on the boat, so i am a little unfamiliar with the setup. 1. Is it possible that the boom is set on the mast too high? It does not seem to be ajustable at the point of contact with the mast. 2. I was considering just undoing the topmost clip to the mast on the mainsail as a temp. solution. Bad idea?Thank you,Tom

 

[Jeff Jackson]

Mainsail hoisting

Tom,You may have already done this but, make sure that your main sheet is loose on the winch and the boom vang is loose. Either of these items could keep the main from going all the way up. It's happened to me before.

 

[Richard]

A main on a 30 should go all the way up

The boom height is not adjustable on a 30 (it is on a 27). I recommend loosening all lines (boom vang, mainsheet, reefing lines, outhaul, downhaul, etc) and try again. If it still does not go all the way up maybe the sail is stretched? My main is fairly old and has some bag along the foot, but the luff is tight. Does your halyard jam up? Some of the rope/wire halyards can jam at the mast top when the rope gets there. I switched to all rope ones of 3/8 inch size. The previous owner used rope/wire halyards that were way oversized and they jamed all the time.

 

[Bob Camarena]

Test

One way to test to see what's limiting you would be to remove a slide from the sail, attach it to the halyard and a haul down line and hoist it. If you can get it all the way to the top, you've pretty much eliminated a halyard or mast slot problem.

 

[Rick Cashman]

I had the same problem with my main. My bolt rope shrunk 10 inches which caused the luff and foot to be too full and prevented the main from reaching the top. Check to see if the main is gathered along the luff.North Sails quickly repaired my problem by removing the stitching that attached the rope to the main and cutting the bolt rope. Then stretched the the head and tack and let the rope slide up and restitched the rope to the sail.

 

[patrick boole]

happy now

was going through the same thing. i originally replaced the halyard and it took two of us jumping and winching to get it up and never quite made it to the top. i changed the halyard to a 3/8 rope and i can now hoist it up in a breeze by myself without help. what a joy to be like all the other guys.