Sail slugs on my p-15

Derek Jensen (djensen@teleport.com)
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 11:17:59 -0700


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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Potterer's,

I've been considering installing sail slugs on "El Nino" for some
time now. My main concern is in sail raising, not so much in dousing,
as I never have had any trouble getting the bolt rope to drop down
the mast. Raising, though, has always been much more problematic,
as I had to have one hand on the mast guiding the bolt rope into the
slot, and when single handing the boat seems to want to fall off
the wind when the sail is about halfway up.

I bought the parts, and here is the news so far:

I searched the archives and looked out at Judy's site for her
mini-faq on slugs. It appeared that the conventional wisdom
was to use the nylon slugs with stainless bails, and the nylon
shackles. I spaced the slugs at roughly 24" intervals, with two
exceptions: I made sure that the slug near the reefing tack was
sufficiently below the grommet to allow reefing without removing
any slugs, and I put two slugs above and below the large
batten. One person had put them around 6" above and below
and seemed to have good luck with the large batten so I
tried that configuration. All said, I put 7 slugs on the main.

Installation was very easy. The shackles made the job very
simple, and I was satisfied. It was now time to try it out.
Based on the descriptions, I gathered that there would be
some problems with the large batten, but it wasn't obvious
why without trying it. The batten does cause some problems.
Due to the way the sail is cut, the batten is supposed to bend
when the bolt rope is taught, giving the sail some shape. When
you insert the sail slugs in the slot, the batten develops some
pressure, and the whole mess becomes a little unwieldy.

Once the whole thing was fed into the slot, I hoisted away on the
halyard, and it when up pretty smoothly. I didn't have to coax it,
so I could see that this would work great for raising the main while
still in the cockpit. Dousing, however, is now far worse. The large
batten, putting its pressure on the sail, causes the slugs surrounding
it to bind and I had to jiggle the sail down. Based on the descriptions,
I will try some type of lube first, but my next line of defense is to
move the slugs closer to the batten and hope that it won't
cause the twist I'm seeing. I also see now why it would be nice
to secure the batten in its pocket using a bolt, and I will probably
try that as well.

So far, I see the following pros and cons:

Pro:

o The sail can be raised from the cockpit.
o The sail stays on the mast, so when doused its
much easier to gather and secure.

Cons:

o The sail binds on the way down.
o The shape seems a little funky. I will need to check this
when I'm on the water, though.

Derek Jensen
p-15 #694 "El Nino"
Portland, OR