I’ve had a few days out now, with my self-installed Sailtrack. I can confirm that the sail raises and drops more easily than it did before the installation.
I do still have to winch the last 25-35% of the sail at the raising, but it’s easier than it was before.
On the way down, the last 25% of the narrow sail is impaired in part by the stiffness of my Dacron sail material. I still have to hop up to the mast to manually flake the upper portion, but I’m not sure if that could be avoided.
The sail slides that I sewed on with webbing from Sailrite seem fine and hold the sail evenly along the mast:
The other knock-on effect is that the slides are taller than my old ones, and so that has affected the fitment of my sail cover. The belly hangs out like a [fill in you favorite character/occupation] who can’t quite get his shirt down over his midriff.
I hope to add some Navy Sunbrella extensions to the cover at some point, so that it is easier to snap around the boom and more ship-shape. If I’m careful I can still get all of the Dacron tucked up and out of the UV light.
Satisfactory for the present.
