Hi Steve, In the FAQ section under Rigs and Rigging you mention you use 3 to 3 1/4″ sliders in your mainsail system. Do you have these sliders in this length specially manufactured for you, and if so, who does it and what material is used? Or are they ‘off the shelf’? And lastly, do they have any metal inserts within the plastic for reinforcement? (I’ve searched extensively but apparently not well enough!) Thanks Rich
Hi Rich: We have an internal track extruded as part of the mast extrusions into which the sliders fit. If the sliders are too short, they wrack (angle themselves) inside the track and become difficult to raise and lower. Most commercial sliders are two to two-and-a-half inches long which is usually too short (but lowers the stack height of the mainsail). After we discovered this issue many years ago we started having the longer sliders made, which sorted out the problem. Initially these were made by Russ Foster at Battslide. After he sold his business to Schaefer products we’ve had Schaefer do this a time or two. These sliders are machined from aluminum (for batten ends–intermediate ate stainless covered on plastic). We spray the mast tracks every couple of months with Team McLube which helps a lot. Steve Dashew
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
