<< Where did you place the slugs in relation
to the upper batten? Where did you place the other slugs? >>
On the advice of Sailrite, I placed two slugs around the long batten..."one
just above the batten, one just below". You then consider these two slugs as
one slug and space all the slugs about two feet apart, with the first one
being two feet above the tack gromment. This allows the sail to fold "nicely"
when dropped and the spacing of the 2 slugs at the batten allow the batten to
twist 90 degrees to help in the folding (or bunching, as it's more accurately
termed!). My sail raises and drops "pretty nicely", especially with a fresh
coating of silicone spray on the slugs. Sometimes I do have to give it a
little nudge to get it to drop completely.
I did two additional things when I installed the slugs. I replaced the
original long batten with a thinner, more flexible one. This came frome West
Marine and you specify the length you want. I attached it to the plastic
batten pocket at it's fore end with a 1/4" bolt. At the aft end, I ground in
a small notch in the end of the batten. I ran a loop of line from one batten
pocket grommet to the other and this is then "snapped" into the notch to put a
little compression force into the batten just before raising the sail. When
you lower the sail, you "snap" the line out of the notch so the sail and
batten are "free" from each other (which is where the aforementioned bolt
comes into play...it keeps the batten from flying out of the sail).
The other thing was to ad a turning block (pulley) to the top of the mast to
space the main halyard back (aft) about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches. When you ad
slugs, the sail is moved aft about this amount and when you raise the sail,
the halyard (in its normal position) tends to pull the sail boltrope into the
groove in the mast as the sail reaches it's fully raised position, causing
some binding. Adding this turning block eliminated this binding. I have a
photo of this I can e-mail to anyone who might wonder how it was done, as
it's rather hard to explain in words.
I'm pleased with the slugs and think it's a good thing to do. When there's
enough wind to "fill" the sail, the sail shape is fine. With very little to
no wind, the batten does droupe a bit at the slugs.
Steve Parsons P15 "MR.P"
Washington,IL