Mast issues

[Kelley Happ]

Hi to all -we are the happy owners of Passport 40 hull # 35 Escape, in Kenosha Wisconsin. Just wondering if any of you have had the same issues as we are having and what you’ve done to solve it. Raising and lowering the mainsail has become more and more difficult as it has considerable drag. We recently had a new mainsail made and this has made the problem worse. We can get the sail up with considerable work, but it does not come down - at all - without us physically dragging it down. Sailmaker has looked at this and recommended installing a plastic track inside the aluminum track. We re wondering if it has to do with the sheave at the top of the mast. We removed the old sheave and it didn’t seem to be worn or broken. Any ideas?? Thanks
Kelley and Larry Happ

[Jim Melton]

My rigger suggested, about eight or nine years ago, that I insert a
Tides Marine plastic track into the aluminum track on my P40 (hull
#018).  It made a very significant difference in the ease of raising and
lowering the mainsail and it was well worth the money, IMHO.  This
particular piece of hardware has a sterling reputation and is extremely
strong, so you won't really have to worry about your sail slides coming
out.

Hope this helps,
   Jim

On 2021-11-11 09:53, Kelley Happ wrote:
> Hi to all -we are the happy owners of Passport 40 hull # 35 Escape, in Kenosha Wisconsin. Just wondering if any of you have had the same issues as we are having and what you’ve done to solve it. Raising and lowering the mainsail has become more and more difficult as it has considerable drag. We recently had a new mainsail made and this has made the problem worse. We can get the sail up with considerable work, but it does not come down - at all - without us physically dragging it down. Sailmaker has looked at this and recommended installing a plastic track inside the aluminum track. We re wondering if it has to do with the sheave at the top of the mast. We removed the old sheave and it didn’t seem to be worn or broken. Any ideas?? Thanks
> Kelley and Larry Happ
>

--
Jim Melton SheltieJim at xmission dot com
-------------------------------------------
Owner and Captain:
Passport 40 #018 Dream SeQueL
Co-Owner and Co-Captain:
Passport 42 #040 Turtle Blues
-------------------------------------------
Shelties since 1969; ASSA member since 1992

[Kenyon Stewart]

Hi Kelley.

If you try the halyard on it's own without the sail, is there friction, squeaking, bumpy unevenness, etc?  To test, tie a line to the halyard so that one person can hoist while the other puts a little tension on the line attached to it.  The sheave may not be worn, but are you certain that it's actually turning?  Often the sheave corrodes to the pin and it doesn't spin anymore.  The halyard just slides over the sheave surface which introduces lots of friction.  It's probably a combination of both the sheave and the track.  Replace the sheave with a nice one with good bearings or a self lubricating bushing.  Clean and use a PTFE lubricant judiciously on the sail track all the way up the mast and the slides on the sail.  Also, sometimes halyards can be wrapped around each other or something else inside the mast which will also cause problems like this.

If you are going to add a new track, I would highly suggest the Tides Marine Sailtrack.

Kenyon 

S/V Outbound

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[psherwood]

I've heard those UHMW tracks work well but have never used one.
Installing battcars (I have a full-battened mainsail) and
graphite-impregnated sail slides helped in my case. Also, at the start
of the season I drench as much of the track as I can reach with McLube
Sailkote. (I'm pretty tall and figure by standing on the boom I can get
about the bottom third of the track.)

Sometimes I'll rig up a spare single sail slide or home-made track
cleaner (for ideas, see
https://www.practical-sailor.com/blog/the-do-it-yourself-sail-track-cleaner)
to the halyard and a messenger line, soak everything with Sailkote, and
run it up and down the track a few times. Then hoist the sail, adding
more Sailkote as you go. Drop the sail, repeat as needed. Not optimal --
best to start at the top of the mast, obviously, where you could also
check the sheave, but I don't usually have anyone to hoist me up or go
up in my stead. Seems to work nonetheless.

Won't help, of course, if the sheave isn't turning freely or is broken
or if the halyard has jumped the sheave. Easy to test -- grab the
working end of the halyard in one hand and the halyard where it emerges
from the mast with the other, and pull back and forth.

Wouldn't hurt to put a messenger line on the shackle first. If you're
like me, you'll fumble it and the weight of the halyard in the mast will
run the working end up to the top. The messenger line will let you smile
sheepishly, haul the shackle back down, and get on with things rather
than have to go find someone to send you aloft.

Phil
s/v Cynosure
Seattle / San Carlos

[Robert C. Young]

Something does not sound right. I have the original 1987 track without any aftermarket plastic inserts and the sail goes up and down without issue.

I think you need to get in a boson's chair and follow the sail up and down to see exactly what the sticking point is, or have the sailmaker take a ride up and down via the jib halyard. Corrosion? Who knows?

Regards,

Bob

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[Timothy Putnam]

I have had good results by spraying dry-lube in the track and on the slides once or twice each season.  If you go up the mast to inspect things, take a can with you.

 A good friend of mine installed Strongtrack (a polyethylene track,) on his 30 footer. Not too expensive and really works. Makes reefing in a breeze much easier, even off the wind. The only drawback is that you may have to have your sailmaker put different slides on the main.

 Good luck and fair Winds

Tim

SV Jubilee P41

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[Marty McOmber]

We recently installed the strong track system on our mast during the big mast and rigging refit.  It was a tremendous improvement for mainsail handling and I would recommend it for anyone considering the upgrade. 

The track itself is straightforward — it inserts into the existing mast track. But you also need to factor in the time and cost of possibly — or probably — needing to replace all of the slides on you mainsail to fit the track — that includes batt cars as well. 

We installed the track while the mast was down. I’ll be honest — it was a bear on our mast because the gate for the mast’s track sits very close to the welded on goose neck tangs. So you had to bend the plastic strong track to get it into the mast’s track. 

You can install the strong track with the mast in place. But if you have a similar set up to mine, I would highly recommend doing it when the mast is unstepped. 

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 13, 2021, at 10:51 AM, Timothy Putnam <svjub...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[jhene...@yahoo.com]

Kelley, Larry, and the rest of the P40 owners,

I also have felt that raising the mainsail was too hard so I took these steps:

1.  Install Antal 22 x 11 HS Fiber track and car system (external aluminum track with aluminum sliders with fibre liners--around $2500--installed with the mast up--pretty big job, but manageable).  Little did I know that I could have gone with a slightly different track to would take both ball bearing cars (for the battens) and regular fibre sliders.  If done again, would upgrade to that track.

2.  Check masthead sheave--replaced with Harken ballbearing:  no change.

3.  Switch to 2:1 halyard.  Slightly better, but could only hoist by hand from the cockpit to the 2nd spreader working very, very hard.  Can easily hoist all the way from the mast.

4.  Check very carefully for wraps inside the mast.  And ended up re-reaving the halyard with mast up and keeping all other halyards tight.  I believe there are no wraps inside the mast.

With all this, I still could not raise the sail easily from the cockpit and dropping was also becoming difficult.

In my research and talking to the Antal track representative, I learned that cleaning the track and cars is critical.  I was told not even to use any lube as even the dry lubes will attract dirt and other contaminants.  I cleaned the track and cars, and, while the hoist is still hard, the drop comes down like a greased pig.  Watch your fingers as the halyard runs out at speed.

My conclusion:  Cleanliness (including no corrosion) is next to speediness!!!

When considering the track upgrade, I looked very closely at the Tides track.  It is slippery.  The Tides guy told me I would have had to add around 10 sliders to the luff to spread the load due to limitations in strength of the track material.  I also read that the track will get brittle in the sun over the years which could lead to cracking.  So, even though I know the Tides is as slippery as all get out, I went with the stronger Antal and as long as I keep it clean, it works very well.

I hope this helps with your deliberations.

Jim Henerberry

1987 P40 #123, Lottie B