We don't use a boltrope feeder. We start from the dock with the mainsail
already in the slot a little bit, held up there by halyard tension. (Our
cabintop cleat for the main haly'd is a clamcleat, one of those wedgeshaped
things that hold the line tight as long as there's tension on it. When
releasing the line from the cleat to raise the sail, you put a little more
pull on it, so you never have loss of tension and the main doesn't flop out of
the track.)
For any help it would give, we did apply some mast slot lubricant the last 2
seasons -- it was the type that comes with a pad you run up and down the slot.
We generally point into the wind to raise the main. Since we're not standing
in the cabin, the boom can lie fore-and-aft (sheet uncleated in case we fall
off the wind), and this probably helps reduce friction on the boltrope. And,
we make sure the topping lift is raising the aft end of the boom at least to
horizontal, if not a little higher, so the haly'd doesn't have to fight the
pull of the back (er, clew) end of the sail.
With this method the main goes up quite smoothly. I wonder if there's a
difference between our P-15's, in the distance between the boom-to-mast
connection and the mast opening for the sailfeed slot? Ours is still in
winter storage so I can't measure it, but from a photo I'd guess it's at least
6", maybe more. If it were less, I think it might be harder to get the
boltrope to feed itself.
Jan Lindstrom & Bob Wester
P-15 #1804 "Dauntless"
Marquette MI on Lake Superior