New Sailor

[beagles]

Hi, this is my first sailboat. have redone teak and a good cleaning and installed a homemade roller furler.
I have a few questions and maybe you can help ?

1. I have 4 halyards with different shackles and i dont know which sail each is used for (have 2 jibs, one is much bigger than the other and has a plastic window)
2. the mast has a winch on the port side, i assume it's for the mainsail ?
3. the mainsail dosent go up smoothly, can i replace the plastic guides or is that something for a sail maker to do
4. Anyone with catalina 25 knowledge near colonial beach ?
thank you in advance for any help yo can provide....

I do home repairs/remodeling and remodeling consulting. if you live near colonial beach maybe we can trade my services for your hands on assistance and guidance. thanks, david

 

[sinnettc]

Before you try to change out your slugs, check your track for spiders, dirt, wasp nests, etc. You can also spray it with some McLube Sailkote to help lubricate things. One thing I've heard done, though I've never done it, is to spray a bunch of mclube on a sock and run it up the track with the halyard - be sure to securely tie some kind of downhaul to the sock so you can pull it back down though!

As far as your halyards go - whichever one comes down the back of mast is for the main.

Jib halyard(s) should come out of the mast just below the forestay.

If one of the halyards comes out above the forestay then it's probably a spinnaker halyard.

The remaining halyard could be a second jib halyard (do you have a dual track foil?) or maybe, if it's not as high up the mast as the others, a topping lift for a spinnaker pole.

Finally, check with the folks on the Catalina 25 association: http://www.catalina-capri-25s.org/

 

[foolproof]

I had trouble with the slugs catching on the opening where you feed them into the mast. I bought a set of covers (from Catalina Direct?) that actually fit inside the opening, and made the inside part of the opening smooth like the rest of the slot. With this installed, the sail would glide up over the opening without having to use three hands to help pull the slugs across the opening. I also helped to spray sailkote on the slugs as well.

 

[Clark]

Just another $.02 - If the plastic slides are held on with plastic shackles; that is an easy DIY and they're pretty cheap. Check w/ Sailrite or Catalina Direct. If they're sewn on with webbing, you could do it yourself but would be more time consuming. As others have said, clean the track and lube it and the slides and they'll almost fly up & down unless you have some broken ones or they are severely worn.