Sail slide lubrication

[Bill Hatton]

I need to lubricate the slide channels in the mast on my 290 Hunter. Do you have any solutions with out lowering the mast?

 

[Pete]

up the mast

go up the mast rather then bring the mast down to you! (A little like Mohamid and the mountain) or just spray the sail slugs with lubricant and put the sail up and down a couple of times!

 

[Doug T.]

Halyard

Why not soak a small rag with lubricant, stuff it in the track and haul it up with your main halyard?(Don't forget to tie another line to the halyard to pull it back down again!!!)

 

[Carl and Juliana Dupre]

Mainsail Hard to Raise?

Hi, Bill. We assume that you are asking this because raising the main has become a big-time resistance training exercise.We have a 340 with standard main, and early on discovered that raising that main could be a real chore. The solution actually involved several things.As Doug mentioned, we spray our sail track lugs with "McLube Sailcote" about every 3 to 5 raisings, or whenever it gets difficult. It really helps.In addition, we had to make certain that sail raising was not constrained by our own running rigging. Before trying to raise the main we make certain that the vang is slack. Then once we start raising and the top two battens are past the lazy jacks (so they won't snag) we loosen the mainsheets. We found out that it is all too easy to make main raising a real chore by having mainsail rigging tight while trying to raise. Good luck!Carl and Jules/v 'Syzygy'

 

[Patti Polk]

We use dish soap

We have a 460 and use dish soap on the track. We use an old mustard squeeze bottle with any clear liquid soap and just load up the track as far up as we can reach. We used to use the silicone products on our old boat. They eventually built up sludge in the track and also left black stuff on the sails. A sailmaker suggested the soap and the good part is it just washes away with the rain, no build up.

 

[Dick Carey]

Sail Slide Track Lube

Some many months ago, Practical Sailor did an evaluation on effective sail track lubes. Thay found that Elmers Slide-All worked very well and lasted longer than others. I have used Elmers Slide-All since then (two seasons) and found a big improvement. Very satisfied. It's available at Tru-Value Hardware stores.Dick CareyS/V Puffin

 

[Merrill Mant]

McLube is great!

On our 335 I could only haul up the main 2/3rds of the mast height buy hand. After lubricating the slides and the track portion I could reach from the deck, the main goes to the masthead by hand and the winch is only used to tighten up. One other big plus is the sail comes down much better and faster. Of note, all 4 battens on our main are full and we have no additional hardware on the batten ends. Give it a try ... I was impressed.Merrill Ambition