My wife and I sail a lot together and I tried to set up the boat for that and cruising more than racing. I installed a Harken roller furler and put slugs on the main with 2 plates at the mast. Also an tillerpilot, to keep the boat into the wind.The slugs seem to hang up at the upper portion of the plates where it covers the mast on either side. Next I will thicken the plates(so that the interior slot opening is flush with the mast)by spot welding aluminum runners on the inside of the plates. You have to determine the thickness, etc. to make it match. Also, I plan to add a self tailing winch to the cabin top. Now, with the autopilot, my wife at the mast to feed slugs and me winching, we can do it, but I want to eliminate the mast jockey! I'll tell you how the plate fix goes after a trip to the machine shop.
sb3031@comcast.net
