I have managed to break 3 of the slides on the foot of my 1990 E34 mainsail twice in the first year of ownership. The first time I and my sailmaker assumed it was the age of the plastic. But now the new ones have broken so I don't have that excuse. I have not sailed in anything over 20 knots so the sail has not seen a lot of force. The slides that break are in the middle of the foot. Is this from too much downward force on the main sheet? I haven't overtightened that I know of. Unfortunately I have not seen them break but only noticed later so I don't know the conditions that caused the break. Any ideas or experience with this?
Mainsail foot track slides are breaking
- Thread starter maxhecks
- Start date
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- Tags
- mainsail track slides
Foot slides
Could be a few things.
The first thing that comes to mind is that you don't have sufficient foot tension (outhaul tension). The slides are meant primarily to allow fore and aft movement along the boom as you tension and untension the outhaul. If you are sailing in breezy conditions with a loose foot, apart from having your mainsail too deep for the conditions, the slides are carrying load they were not meant to carry.
Could also be that you might have a reef line led around the boom which is improperly tensioned when sailing wth a full main (there should be ZERO load on any reef lines unless the sail is actually reefed and they are pulling against those slides at a bad angle.
They could simply have been from a defective batch of slides (it happens), but if they are new slides and the plastic actually broke, it is being subjected to incorrect load somehow.
Keep looking- you will find it.
S
Could be a few things.
The first thing that comes to mind is that you don't have sufficient foot tension (outhaul tension). The slides are meant primarily to allow fore and aft movement along the boom as you tension and untension the outhaul. If you are sailing in breezy conditions with a loose foot, apart from having your mainsail too deep for the conditions, the slides are carrying load they were not meant to carry.
Could also be that you might have a reef line led around the boom which is improperly tensioned when sailing wth a full main (there should be ZERO load on any reef lines unless the sail is actually reefed and they are pulling against those slides at a bad angle.
They could simply have been from a defective batch of slides (it happens), but if they are new slides and the plastic actually broke, it is being subjected to incorrect load somehow.
Keep looking- you will find it.
S
