jdoorly wrote:Scott, this may not work for you since your Tabernacle side plates are wider than mine and will probably interfere with the plate as slugs are being pressed in. I had to take a little off on mine for clearance. You may be able to take a lot off, just up to leaving enough meat next to the holes. Also you may be able to move the holes closer to the lip, but the holes may have to be drilled through the slot wall (not just the mast outer wall). I have given up on the internal type gate because this one works so well, but that might be a good solution for you to try.
After lowering my main sail while coming in to the dock a few times (slugs, not bolt rope) and having it spill out all over the cockpit, I started focusing back in the mast slot and how useful it would be to have a gate.
As you mentioned Jay, my mast hinge is to much in the way to reproduce what you had done, and now that I'm on the water, I really really don't want to have to take it all apart again and cut down the hinge side, so I went shopping in my pole barn for another solution. As my eyes were scanning the tons of parts, junk and scrap pieces filed randomly in assorted piles, they fell on a carpet edge trim piece. Slightly curved, about an inch wide, aluminum... hmmm... So I hack sawed off about a foot and took it down to the boat, held it up, and whola... it'll work.
I drilled and tapped a pair of holes into the mast, one in the lower portion of the slot (well below the travel area used for slugs) which I put in the screw snug but not tight, and one top outside the slot into the main mast. I found a wing screw so I can loosen/remove the top screw to slide the plate aside slightly and put the slugs in/out, replace the wing screw, and it works great! (the middle hole was already there from the Carpet edge strip application).
It's some weird bronze color with a textured surface, but the price was right, so for now I'll paint it flat black until I find something else. I'll also probably make the top hole into more of a sideways slot so I can loosen the wingscrew and slide the plate aside rather than having to take the screw entirely out to open the gate.
DS #6127 - Breakin' Wind - From the land of 10,000 lakes, which spend 80% of the year frozen it seems...