Hoisting Main Sail

My 82 Hobie 16 has a sailfeeder installed at the bottom of the sail track. There is a small gap of about an eight inch between the sail feeder and track. The sail usually makes it OK through the bottom of the feeder but, some of the upper batten pockets on the luff side get stuck as they exit the feeder and enter the track. The sail goes down without any hangups. If I squeeze the top edges of the feeder a bit together will that help? I am afraid if I squeeze too much the problem will be reversed and I will have trouble lowering the sail. Is it normal that the feeder has a little space between the track? It seems like there is no damage to the pockets, but a trip to the sail shop should help to tighten things up.

You may want to check out this previous post "Raising main sail" from Aug 13, 2010:

http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=28149

I use a Sail Trax feeder and it has a minimum opening of 3/16". As long as my main sail battens are not over tensioned, my 87 Blue Prism sail easily slides up/down my all aluminum mast.

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Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL