I am replacing a very old sail cover with a Stack Pack. The Main on our C&C 35 Mark III uses a boltrope. Most Stack Packs I'm familiar with are either attached to the Main or the Boom. I would like to join the 2 sides of the stack pack to a narrow strip of Dacron the length of the foot of the sail, place the Dacron strip under the Main's boltrope and install the assembly as I would have installed the Main itself. Has anyone done this? I can't test my idea as my boat is stored 700 miles away. Thanks for any comments.
Stack Pack on boltrope Main
- Thread starter Jimongee
- Start date
Looking forward to pix when this project gets going. On our boat and all the others I have seen, the "stack pack" (and all the similar split covers from other sailmakers) are functioning with mains with slugs.
Racers used to flake their bolt rope mains down over the boom in alternating folds and put on a fairly large "horse blanket" style sail cover when done. The idea of the bolt rope main was to gain a couple of nano-knots... It may have worked but I converted our first one design sailboat to slugs the first year because the main was awkward when lowered. At a "nationals" level of competition I never was aware of either type of main being faster or slower, however. The only part of our boat that usually affected winning was..... yup.... me!
Racers used to flake their bolt rope mains down over the boom in alternating folds and put on a fairly large "horse blanket" style sail cover when done. The idea of the bolt rope main was to gain a couple of nano-knots... It may have worked but I converted our first one design sailboat to slugs the first year because the main was awkward when lowered. At a "nationals" level of competition I never was aware of either type of main being faster or slower, however. The only part of our boat that usually affected winning was..... yup.... me!
If I understand correctly, you are talking about the foot of the sail. Trying add more cloth in the boom track might be difficult and would certainly increase the friction in the track which would adversely affect the outhaul, it would be much harder to adjust. One problem is capturing rain water. With the bottom of the stack pack is closed water will not drain out.
It would make more sense to convert your sail to a loose footed sail. It would be a relatively easy conversion, remove the lowest panel and reinforce the edge.
It might be possible to run nylon straps under the boom to connect the sides.
Talk to your sailmaker about your plans or contact Mack Sails, they probably have the most experience with stack packs.
Yes! My Mack Pack was originally used with a bolt rope main sail. I was not keen on cutting slits in my sail for the “connectors” on the 2 sides of the bag….in consulting with Mack Sails, they told me that they do exactly what you are suggesting.
1 side of the strip of Dacron is sewn to one side of the Mack Pack. The other side has a snap type fitting, so you can disconnect it and get in then boom slot. See attached photo.
Greg