[alberg30] My boat creeks, among other things

From: "Chester & Jan Koop" <cjk at tir.com>

Having recently (five years ago) converted to a fully battened main I'll
share with you my experiences.  First you will need to replace the old sail
track with all new track to accommodate the new batt cars.  If you simply
convert to full battens and retain the old slides (i.e. eliminating batt
cars), the sail will not drop on its own.  The full battens will cause the
old style slides to twist and hang-up after having dropped the main only a
foot or so.  This will require that you physically grab hold of the main and
pull it down.  At the time I installed my system there were only two or
three good bat car systems out there.  I selected the Harkin system which,
in 1994, set me back $1100 (bat cars, headboard car and track).

When installing the track, I ended up cutting approximately 6 inches off the
upper end of the gooseneck slide and extending the sail track this extra
distance.  This was done to accommodate the stacked height of the bat cars
on the boom (when in the furled   position) and facilitate the reefing
process.

Thirdly, I raised the resting height of the boom a few inches by replacing
one of the countersunk screws with a longer round head run through a thick
spacer which act as a stop when the sail is lowered.  This still allows one
to use a boom down haul permits the furled sail to get closer to the boom.
Probably the best arrangement would be to replace the sliding gooseneck with
new one affixed permanently to the mast.

Chet Koop
Tangaroa 445

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