does anyone know the dimension of the boom track of the J30 ? The clew slug on my main keeps coming out of the boom with strong winds, and i need to fix the boom and was thinking of replacing the slug with a car instead. thanks.

Many of us have this problem. I now use a reinforced velcro loop around the boom and have also seen people use a sail tie looped around the boom or a spectra loop. It runs through the clew cringle and around the boom. You don't need a slug this way.

roger, roger ... velcro loop 3x or so also getting common on boats way larger than the J30. and it slides better than those slugs. new velcro each season is nice.

My Velcro loop on my brand new sail is starting to pop loose in the heavier stuff. I am not impressed. My slug blew out two years ago. Made quite the bang!

how many turns are you winding it? keep winding it until you can't add anymore turns through the clew ring.

bangs are interesting ... like having the reef line pop in a decent wind.

the velcro loop on Rhapsody is 2.5 turns around the boom. Never had a problem with it separating. The boom circumference is 12 inches so the velcro should be about 30 to 33 inches long.

Buggers put too short of a strap on. It only goes 1.5 times around (basically once through the clew).

No convenient sailmakers to get another sold on, but really I can just tie on an additional strop with webbing like I do on my other sail.

The end of the boom is tapered on the end. At full outhaul, how do you keep the strap from sliding up there and getting loose and then hung up there when trying to ease the outhaul?

Do it the easy way and just wrap a sail tie around a couple times through the cringle, then tie it off. It should be tight enough so it you can't slide the aft end of the sail off the boom if the tack is pinned where it should be. There is no problem adjusting the outhaul the way you would normally. I actually found it was easier to adjust because the slug would sometimes bind in the boom track when under pressure.

easiest way to use velcro strap is to curl the velcro loop through the ss ring in a quick building loop, then attach the shackle. two min max ... this is about 5 ft of double sided velcro. It is not snugged really tight and slides nice.

Confirmed the other night while sailing, when I am at full outhaul, the cringle is past where my taper begins. there is no way to keep the strop from sliding back onto the taper. Veddy inerestink.

Oh, and my velcro is definitely too short. Buggers.

You can see on Vic's picture the black band on the boom. The inner edge of the band is supposed to be the maximum that the main clew is extended.

I think ... but don't know for sure ... the tape is Velcro One Wrap Tape hook/loop 1" with a on line price of ~ $6.90 for 15' roll

velco tape reference

I have the same outhaul shackle and it looks like his is pulled to the stop as does mine. His taper looks steeper than mine though (my taper carries further forward). This could be just the angle of the photo.

Refresh my memory, will the OD legal main pull all the way to max outhaul (shackle hits end of boom). Perhaps it is because I have a non-leagl main that was made to measure so it may be a bit longer in the foot.

The main on Rhapsody does not reach the black band. About 1/2" to reach it. It measures as class legal.

photo after high wind day with all the flattening that we could do ... the shackle in this case doesn't allow it to go further back than the photo shows. it is one of Norths new woven fabrics. 7+ oz and probably with next to no stretch.

this is a mickey moused main that started as a bolt rope luff for last years NA, where it too measured ok

Was converted to tides marine slugs this year and then had to be trimmed back a bit to allow for the sail track pushed out from the mast. It is full battened.

North seems to want to make the foot on these sails a bit long.