Mainsail Halyard - stop

I have never had a problem raising the main while on the boom. In fact, I never take it off the boom. I hook up the main sheet blocks in the parking lot before launching and raise the sail after launch. I found that I had to make sure there was slack in the main sheet or I couldn't raise the sail all the way. It might help to remove the boom but I think there is a basic problem somewhere. How many slugs are there on the halyard? The older boats had two so you could reef. If you only have one then the halyard may be for a comptip mast.

Did you lay the boat on its side to see if you could connect it? Did you check the sail track for any damage that would pinch the sail near the top?

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Howard

I was experiencing similar issues with my H18 and two things made a world of difference: 1. I released the excess tension from my battens and 2. I sprayed the bolt of my old, worn sail with two coats of "Sailkote" dry lubricant. I could not believe the difference! I went from barely being able to lock the main using all of my might (I'm a big, strong guy so it was clear to me something wasn't right) to being able to raise and hook the main single handed ~ 5 minutes. You just know the Sailkote is working when you manually push some of the sail up into the mast track and gravity makes it slide back down. Anyways, after the season I'm going to install a new halyard as I am told part of my problem may be the line I have is too big a diameter and it may be rubbing on the bolt inside of the mast, causing unnecessary friction. Take care.

ok tonight I loosened up my forestay...I think that was too tight and I was able to raisethe main higher than ever...but still could not engage the stop (it was very close though). It does appear that I will be able to but there is still to much friction. I think I may have my battens to tight and I also will have to clean the track on the mast. I will spray some sailkote on the sail too and hopefully that will do it! had a great sail tonight and can't wait for tomorrow!

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~Tom in CT
81' H-16

For what it's worth, I had a lot of trouble raising my main at first. I cleaned out the track with high pressure water, then pushed a rag through it with a screwdriver and couldn't believe all the crap that came out, then sprayed the silicon in the track and on the luff and viola, holy smoke did she go up easy after that. Greased lightning! You should be fine.

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'81 H16

If it ain't a blowin', I ain't a goin'

Ok...Finally got to mess around with this again. I took the mast down and cleaned the track out...it was not to bad but got some crud out. Then I sprayed the track and luff of the sail with sail-kote. While I was at it I replaced the main and jib halyards and well as the rest of the sheets. The mainsail went up easily and I was able to engage the stop on the wire. The downhaul had to be pulled hard to keep the boom engaged but that ok.

Thanks to all of you who gave me advice.

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~Tom in CT
81' H-16