OK, I'll freely admit that I'm getting old & lazy but I'm also trying to set the boat up for doublehanded sailing in the higher winds (20-30Kn regularly) in my new location and for really easy sailhandling in tight quarters. With that said, does anybody have any experience with fully battened mains with sail slides? What did you use for mast gate closures? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Most of my racing now will be local PHRF (with modifiers for how many microwaves or dogs you have on board:).

Mark Rotsky on Nemisis races regularly with full batten main on slides and does very well. I believe the correct slides are A18 that I have on Rhapsody main for every day use.

Yes everyone will make fun of you for fully battened mains, but they don't flog the main and boom, which means for those simple short runs where you have to go dead up wind, the sail is nicely under control. And they keep a nice shape in older sails. We've used them 25 years on #505.

Slides need a stainless plate which is tapped and screwed into the gate ... I found that even though they force you to buy a set [for each side of the gate], using only one seems to work better depending on the slide being used. And you may have to use a grinder to slightly reshape the top and bottom edge to make it real easy to slide pass the plate. Eventually we went to tides marine track and slides which is really good if you go out a lot.

Thanks Gents!
I'll probably go with the Tides system. I (finally) retired last week and should finally get some time to use the boat. I'm shooting for the ultimate rigging "KISS" to make it easy for newbies. I suspect a lot of what I'll be doing here is teaching & coaching. There's a lot of need in the local sailing community. I'm jumping from boat-to-boat on Thursday night races to help guys get comfortable with the notion of racing. I'm figuring this & a Harken furler should make the boat pretty simple & I can always remove the drum for real racing when I get to.

I've used this system for many years. Schaffer Marine makes some SS tangs that will fit either side of the slot. You may have to countersink the holes to allow a flathead small bolt to hold them in place. Eventually, my Schaffer tangs got bent so I went to a metal fabricator and he built a couple of new ones. Must beefier but they still work fine.

I have two mains. One is the conventional bolt rope with partial battens. The other is my heavy duty full batten with slides. I much prefer the latter, especially when sailing offshore. It's easy to reef. I have two reef lines. When it blows, the full battens help the sail keep it shape.

Good luck.

Bob Rude
#352
Mmmmm

You can't go wrong with the Tides Marine Strong Track System. I have a J/30, but also work for North Sails New Orleans, and I put these systems on boats almost weekly, great system and unbelievably easy once installed. If you have any questions about the system or the sail modification, let me know.
Neil
504 908 6345