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Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? #16255
05/10/15 11:43 AM
05/10/15 11:43 AM
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 203
Oxford, MI
Conundrum Offline OP
Senior Member
Conundrum  Offline OP
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 203
Oxford, MI
I just added slugs to my main, Now the slugs get caught at the feed slot. I made a pair of flat covers to close it but the slugs still catch and bind as they pass requiring handling at every slug. How have you guys solved this?
Thanks, PICS Please.


Don King
Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16258
05/11/15 09:28 AM
05/11/15 09:28 AM
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 164
Portland, ME
JBiermann Offline
Senior Member
JBiermann  Offline
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 164
Portland, ME
I am about to contend with the same thing, I have added slugs to my cruising dacron. As far as I can tell there are two options and I will be trying the easiest and cheapest first. Get a sail track stop bolt from ebay, they cost about 10 bucks. Raise the sail with all slugs above the feeding groove and then insert the bolt and tighten it down. The con to this method is that, with the mainsail struck and flaked, the slugs are going to all be above the feeding groove fairly high on the mast... which might look a little silly and potentially not fit beneath my sail cover... but... cheap, easy, foolproof.

The more substantive option is the track gate which I've looked into. Seems like you have done a DIY version of the gate option. The inside of the gate has to be flush with the inside of the track (think one smooth surface) and the groove width exactly even in order to keep the slugs from binding. This might entail adding some thickness to the inside of the gate to get those tolerances really really close... do a search on the forum, I know I've read a post about it on here somewhere...

Good Luck

Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16266
05/13/15 03:32 PM
05/13/15 03:32 PM
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 164
Portland, ME
JBiermann Offline
Senior Member
JBiermann  Offline
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 164
Portland, ME
Hi Don,

So the cheap fix doesn't work, the slot is high up that, standing on the cabin, I can barely reach to the top of the slugs to put the halyard buckle into the main clue. I ordered the slot conversion from sail rite today.

Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16306
05/27/15 01:37 PM
05/27/15 01:37 PM
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 135
Summit, NJ
Michael L Offline
Senior Member
Michael L  Offline
Senior Member
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 135
Summit, NJ
Don't forget the super inexpensive fix. Once hoisted, tie a sailtie above the slot. When the main drops, it all sits above the sailtie.

I tried several iterations of gates, and in the end liked this one the best.

For a nice sail, I'd roll it up anyway.


Michael
Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16309
05/27/15 03:55 PM
05/27/15 03:55 PM
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 2,668
Portsmouth, RI
Rhapsody #348 Offline
Past J/30 Class President
Rhapsody #348  Offline
Past J/30 Class President
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 2,668
Portsmouth, RI
Rhapsody just has two stainless steel bars that are bolted in line with the track opening. The edge by the opening is ground with a bevel to allow the slugs to pass over the transition from the track to the steel slides. This works fine with the slugs on the everyday main we used. The race main is on a bolt rope and the steel bars are taken off when that main is used.

I'll be helping Kimberly load the truck for shipping Rhapsody to Oswego next week and will try and get some pictures then.

Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16466
09/10/15 03:04 PM
09/10/15 03:04 PM
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 74
St. Helens, OR USA
Koesh Offline
Senior Member
Koesh  Offline
Senior Member
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 74
St. Helens, OR USA
I'm looking at going to a Tides track on mine, but while I was following the R2AK (Race to Alaska...cool event) I found one of the boats was sponsored by http://www.mastgates.com/ . I haven't checked 'em out, yet, but folks up in the Port Townsend area seem to think they work. I'll probably try some on my Merit-25.


Doug Marshall
Koeshtkah #207
Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16471
09/12/15 08:10 PM
09/12/15 08:10 PM
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 164
Portland, ME
JBiermann Offline
Senior Member
JBiermann  Offline
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 164
Portland, ME
The gates from rig rite are simple and have worked flawlessly since I've switched the dacron main to slugs. At $125 - ish they're a tad pricy for what they are but the engineering seems to be spot on.

-josh

[Linked Image]

Last edited by JBiermann; 09/13/15 07:56 PM.
Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16473
09/13/15 12:04 PM
09/13/15 12:04 PM
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 160
Vancouver, BC, Canada
dlabrosse Offline
Senior Member
dlabrosse  Offline
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 160
Vancouver, BC, Canada
I recognize the rig rite gates as what I have on my boat as well. They came with the boat from the previous owner. They work very well.


Dominique Labrosse
Red Five, #92
Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16531
10/26/15 02:37 AM
10/26/15 02:37 AM
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 74
St. Helens, OR USA
Koesh Offline
Senior Member
Koesh  Offline
Senior Member
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 74
St. Helens, OR USA
I'm thinking about giving these guys a shot. They're less expensive than Rig-Rite, but they may be a little lightweight for the J...looks like they're primarily for smaller boats. I'm inclined to help 'em simply because they helped sponsor a boat for the R2AK...which was just TOO much fun to follow!


Doug Marshall
Koeshtkah #207
Re: Mains with slugs ,Close the feed slot? [Re: Conundrum] #16624
11/26/15 01:54 PM
11/26/15 01:54 PM
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 36
Bermuda
S
Sean Offline
Senior Member
Sean  Offline
Senior Member
S
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 36
Bermuda
Just following up on this post, what were the best solutions found so far? I like thought process of the mast gates as it would allow to remove the sail without having to unscrew the gates from the mast first.

Last edited by Sean; 11/26/15 01:56 PM.
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