sail slugs for DS2

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sail slugs for DS2

Postby Guest » Thu Jun 22, 2000 12:00 am

Has anyone installed sail-slugs on their DaySailor? How'd they work? Any recommendations and/or pit falls to watch out for? Seems to me they'd help in reducing the frustration and effort of dropping the sail and "flaking" (folding, bunching?) it onto the boom. I'm not interested in racing it, so it doesn't matter if slugs are an illegal modification.

Thanks,
Steve parsons

steve parsons (ramblerdrver-at-aol.com)
Guest
 

Postby Guest » Fri Jun 23, 2000 12:00 am

Steve, slugs on the mainsail are perfectly class-legal, as long as the boltrope is still in place. You need not fear "breaking" the one-design rules!
I agree that the sail is easier to furl with slugs, but the ease of raising sail is aided (with slugs) if you have a gate to keep them from falling out of the slot in the mast. Of course, then it is best to leave the sail furled on the boom covered by a sail cover. If, like me you keep your DS on a mooring (or in a slip) all season, this is easy, but if you trailer your boat...the gate in the slot may be more inconvienient than the boltrope. Basically, without the gate, the slugs will just fall out of the slot as you lower the sail, and you then lose the benefit of easier furling. I've used both slugs and the boltrope, and have found that the slugs are easier only if the entrance to the slot in the mast can be closed to prevent the slugs from falling out. I like the way that once I feed the head of the sail into the slot, the boltrope just feeds itself as the sail goes up. On our CAL 21, we have slugs, and until we added the gate....feeding each slug into the slot as the sail went up was not fun.

Rod Johnson (rjohnson24-at-juno.com)
Guest
 

Postby Guest » Mon Jun 26, 2000 12:00 am

Yes, I have done this mod to my main, works so much better, installed grommets and plastic connectors to slugs every 18" or so.

G.Wright (gwrite-at-dreamscape.com)
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Postby Guest » Sun Jul 02, 2000 12:00 am

I dont know about everybody else but i just removed my sail lugz. They dont go all the way up the mast so that their is still about 4 in that u cant pull up. I think it is a pain in the butt.

Nate


Nathan (Snowbdr13-at-aol.com)
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Postby Guest » Wed Jul 05, 2000 12:00 am

I'm assuming everyone knows that there is a very simple solution to keeping the slugs from falling out of the mast slot, but just in case there is someone unaware of it, there is a neat little gadget that you can slip into the slot after you've raised the main that keeps the slugs in the slot when you douse the main. The device has a little knurled wheel screw that hand tightens a stop slug in the slot. I think you can order them via catalog, although I couldn't find one in the current Defender's Catalog.

Frank Skewes (fskewes-at-ebmail.gdeb.com)
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Postby Guest » Thu Jul 06, 2000 12:00 am

well, I went ahead and installed sail-slups on my main sail. Got them, along with a sail-stop (the device that stops the slugs from falling out of the mast slot) from Sailrite (www.sailrite.com). Haven't had time yet to actually go sailing yet with them, but they sure make dropping the main and folding it up on the boom much easier and neater.

It does seem harder to raise the sail up that last 4-6" to the top of the mast. I think that's because of the angle of the halyard as the sail nears the top. Installing slugs sets the mainsail aft an inch or so. As the sail nears the top of the mast, this aft position of the sail results in the halyard no longer pulling the sail straight up but instead it's trying to pull the top of the sail into the mast groove. The result is the top slug tends to jam in the groove. One possible solution is to mount a small pulley (cheek block?...not sure of proper term)at the top of the mast, aft side. The halyard is run over this also, which sets it aft enough to pull straight up on the main thru it's full travel.

steve parsons (ramblerdrver-at-aol.com)
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Postby Guest » Tue Jul 11, 2000 12:00 am

Steve, the Day Sailer Mainsail, like a lot of other designs is designed with a boltrope that is slightly shorter than the luff of the sail. This allows the sail to be slightly "baggy" in light airs for more drive. In most wind conditions the halyard would be pulled tight to stretch the boltrope to equal the length of the luff. I suspect the difficulty in raising the sail that last 4" is the effort required to stretch the boltrope. You may want to try releasing the downhaul before raising the sail, then bring the sail all the way up and use the downhaul to bring the boom down to stretch the boltrope. Also. if you have replacement halyards on your boat, I bet they are made of double-braied line........if so, the difficulty is also being caused by the fact that in splicing the line to the halyard shackle, about 6" or so of line is "tucked-in" to the halyard making it thicker and stiffer! If you have halyards made from 5/16" line, it will be worse. My halyards are made of 1/4" line and I find the stiffness problem to be very minor. I had the same problem getting the sail up that last few inches on my old O'Day Widgeon. The more I think about it, I bet the sail is not the problem...the problem is the halyard! If possible, try reversing you halyard the next time you have the mast down, then try raising the sail by tying the halyard to the sail, if the sail goes up that last few inches easier.. then you have found the problem.

Rod Johnson (rjohnson24-at-juno.com)
Guest
 

Postby Guest » Sat Jan 13, 2001 1:39 am

I am going to add sluggs to our mainsail and am curious as to the outcome of your trials on the above. Also; is there wear on the top slugg? The important dimenssion is the width and you could probably shave a bit off the top, front side of the slugg to facilitate sliding. RSVP

MAKurtis (Emak41-at-excite.com)
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