Trouble Raising the Main

[NiceAft]

I happen to agree. Unless Neo says that the main sheet was loose, and he raised the boom by pulling on the topping lift, I will still believe that that is the problem. That is what I needed to do to correct the challenge of raising the main up to its propper position. The problem that Neo described is what I went through awhile back.

Ray

[Neo]

The 700 dollar sail the BWY sells should do fine if budget is an issue. The real nice fancy 2000 dollar mains are great but it's a marginal improvement in performance. (In other words, if you getting a pricey sail just for performance it's not worth the price unless your racing). The main value of the real expensive sails (the good ones like Judy sells) is that they will last a long time. If you don't have the money just get the cheap one that BWY has for 500 dollars and save up for the expensive one later. The 500 dollar one will be good for at least 5 seasons. Very few sails will last more than 10 seasons.

$1700 was cheap Main sail, made in Brisbane. I'm taking Australian dollars (x 1.4 USD) and the cost of shipping from the US usually requires a second mortgage!!! ... Judy or BWY are welcome to PM me if they know a way round this??

Thanks Don, but the leach was very loose before hoisting and on each re-try .... I made sure of that.


All the best.
Neo

[Tomfoolery]

I thought I had posted this here, but I guess I didn't. Here's a link to a thread I started when I had a similar (nearly identical) problem with the main sail.

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... =8&t=23552

Oh,wait - I know why. You posted in it on January 5th.

(Psssst. Cut the stitching on the bolt rope, at the bottom, near the tack.)

[Neo]

Ok, I've jumped the gun

I use two mole grips to clamp over the bolt rope then strung up the sail, with a ratchet strap, between two trees. I could see the wrinkles, in the sail cloth, covering the bolt rope and applied enough tension to smooth out all those wrinkles.
Surprising, using a ratchet strap the bolt rope stretches quite easily. Stretched 5 1/2" with. Will leave it like that (in the sun) for a day or so, then take the tension off and measure it again.

All the best.
Neo

[BOAT]

They are charging too much money for stuff to go to there - that sucks. There has got to be some way of shipping a sail without it costing so much. That's terrible. Are there good sail lofts over there?

[Neo]

Are there good sail lofts over there?

I don't know many lofts...Doyle's in Sydney relocated production to China!.... I know because the Admiral used to work for them. Regrettably she was in admin.... otherwise she'd be sat in front our sowing machine by now

Ok, at this point it looks like the bolt rope did shrink and it does return to possibly full length under tension. Hydesails specify a Luff length of 8.36m and my Luff has now stretched to 8.34m ....The Sail cloth (wrapping around the bolt rope) looks pretty tight now. I can turn up the tension but I don't want to push my luck .... I'll let the bolt rope sweat it out in the Australian sun for a couple of days

All the best.
Neo

[NiceAft]

Something else just came to mind, what leverage are you using to pull on the main's halyard? Are you just pulling pulling down by hand, or using some additional leverage to give added power to the pull?

Before I finally led all lines to the cockpit, for years I would go on deck to pull the main up. By using a truckers hitch ( http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/truckers-hitch/ ) it made it easier raise the main those final few inches.

Ray

[Neo]

Hi Ray,

I'm confident the Haylard was pulled very tight ... maybe too tight

All the best.
Neo

[grady]

Hi Ray,

I'm confident the Haylard was pulled very tight ... maybe too tight

All the best.
Neo

With they way the wrinkles are the halyard was not to tight. If you can't stretch out the rope just cut it loose at the bottom. To make it look better.

[NiceAft]

Several have mentioned the wrinkles in the main, and what might be causing that. I thought this may be of help in understanding what wrinkles in the main indicate, and what to do.

Ray
http://www.quantumsails.com/downloads/c ... _flynn.pdf

[BOAT]

I think his sail is just blown out.

When my main was new I pulled it up the mast and hit the top real easy. as each season went by I noticed on a hard tack my sail would have a little bump at each slug or the bolt rope was not in a perfect straight line up the mast, so I would back off the mainsheet and give the halyard (led aft) a little pull to tighten up the main and go back on a hard tack and everything was fine. Nice and tight.

But as each year goes by I need to pull harder and harder to get the main nice and tight like that. This is NORMAL. About the fifth or sixth season on this main I probably will find it so hard to get the bumps out of the main that I will need to replace the sail. When the sail can no longer make a nice flat foils to the wind it's time to replace it. They don't last forever you know.

I will probably be buying a new main AND Genoa next winter and while I am at it I guess i will have a spinnaker made for 'boat' too as I find myself doing a lot more downwind running as I travel longer and longer distances.

[Tomfoolery]

I think his sail is just blown out. <snip> They don't last forever you know.

They don't? Mine is original, and only 17 years old.

. . . and while I am at it I guess i will have a spinnaker made for 'boat' too as I find myself doing a lot more downwind running as I travel longer and longer distances.

You might want to read up on some of DaveB's posts about using the working jib and whisker pole for downwind sailing. It's easier than rigging, launching, dousing, and de-rigging a spinnaker, for sure, but I haven't (yet) tried a whisker pole on this boat, but I used to use one on my 34 footer (it was very easy to use, even single-handed). I will this coming season, though.

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... 86#p308186

[BOAT]

I think his sail is just blown out. <snip> They don't last forever you know.

They don't? Mine is original, and only 17 years old.

. . . and while I am at it I guess i will have a spinnaker made for 'boat' too as I find myself doing a lot more downwind running as I travel longer and longer distances.

You might want to read up on some of DaveB's posts about using the working jib and whisker pole for downwind sailing. It's easier than rigging, launching, dousing, and de-rigging a spinnaker, for sure, but I haven't (yet) tried a whisker pole on this boat, but I used to use one on my 34 footer (it was very easy to use, even single-handed). I will this coming season, though.

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... 86#p308186

Dave uses a smaller genoa that I do - his is only a 105. Also Dave is on an x boat and the flat bottom does not track as well under a kite like the M does. A better person to talk to about flying the kite on the M boat would be BEENE. Once you get them in the air you can go very fast for a very long time. I would not use a kite unless I plan on running the whole day. It's for traveling longs distances.

I did have a whisker pole on my old Aquarius and to run wing and wing I needed it because (like the X boat) the Aquarius could wander a bit when the centerboard is up.

I run wing on wing ALL THE TIME on 'boat' - I have to because it's the only way I can get home. From out a sea I need to run to get back to shore. 'boat' runs wing on wing great - I can go wing on wing for hours on end without a whisker pole on the M boat because the deep V hull tracks pretty straight. My main reason for a kite is to get the extra speed over a long distance. The wind blows very constant over here in the Pacific in the afternoon.

[Tomfoolery]

A better person to talk to about flying the kite on the M boat would be BEENE.

Who? This guy?



We were flying ours like big genoas, almost pinching, until we veered apart. The boat moved along very smartly. But I didn't think about the tracking abilities of the M vs the X, and I definitely had some CB down, as it tracks like it's a dog on ice otherwise.



But my spinnaker sock doesn't cover the spin all the way, and with a lot of it exposed, I have to fight with it when there's anything more than a light wind. I'll be trying a whisker pole on my 105 and 150 this summer, to see if I can lose the spinnaker.

[BOAT]

Yes, the X boat does involve a teeny bit of fine tuning to keep it straight under the kite from what others have told me. There is a guy over here in the marina that has an X boat - a very very old one and he flies the kite to get home from San Clemente Island, (yes, there are people who take the X boat 60 miles out to sea), and he has developed quite a skill for keeping his boat before the wind without a CB. (He claims he packs all his heavy gear in the nose to achieve this). It seems to work, but really, I think he is just an old timer who has developed a pretty good skill on the helm.

Beene and John run their kites and say it really makes the M boat go fast. They are also in the Pacific, so they get to take advantage of a steady breeze in the afternoon too. My biggest fight with kites in the past was sailing in intermittent winds that would collapse the bag and get things all wadded up and since I was on trailer rigs the mast was always short. The M boat is such a tall rig that I think it keeps the bag in the air a little better than other trailer rigs.

I am running a 150 up front and have not found a need for a pole - I think on the X boat they run the poles on the smaller jibs like a 105 because the sail is in close enough to the boat in that kind of a situation to take advantage of a pole. You can furl the jib I guess to get it on a small pole. There are so many ways to do it - but usually it's the folks sailing in the really nasty and puffy winds that need a full bag of tricks. You guys on the east coast have to deal with so much more stuff than we do on the west. We are not as good as sailors as the east coast guys when it comes to sail handling.