Removal of sail on compac horizon cat

[markeckman]

Can anyone provide advice on how to remove the sail on a Compac Horizon cat? The only approach I have noted is to unscrew the hooks holding the sail onto the slides. I'd rather not do that, and have been trying to figure out how to move the slides (along with the sail) off the mast track? Would love some advice.
many thanks
Mark

[bruce]

The standard way on all Com-Pac catboats is to remove the 2 pivot bolts on the hinge and lifting the mast off the mast stub. Now the track in clear at the top and you can slide the throat gooseneck up and out of the way, giving you access to the sail slugs. Clearly the sail and spars need to below the hinge before you start. If the long pin is in place, it will need to be removed to allow components to be slid out of the track in the stub.

Temporarily support the mast and gaff to keep things organized. Stuff a rag into the mast stub openning before you start. Fasteners have a perverse desire to dive down the stub and can be hard to retrieve.

[Andre]

Hi Mark

I've always taken the opposite approach and unscrewed the "hooks" as you called them (I don't know what else they may be called). I've found that to be easier. Only takes 10 minutes unless you lose one of the screws! I've been doing that for 14 years on my PC and 4 on my HC and have only broken 2 of them which had become brittle with age. Usually you can just spread the legs sufficiently to remive them. After that I ordered several spares from sailrite.com to keep on hand. Their free paper catalog has nice illustrations of slides and related stuff with dimensions so you can match the replacements with what you might need and they're pretty inexpensive (1$ ?). I don't have the information handy just now. I'm sure there are other sources. In a pinch you can use a cable tie. Also I've sailed my PC with one slide hook broken and found that the luff tension is sufficient to keep the sail in place until I could fix it.

Andre

[bruce]

Looks like a fun Dyneema soft shackle project, but even the generic stamped SS shackles are pretty cheap.

[Jim in TC]

Having just removed the sail from our SunCat, I will add that if there are lights up the mast, supporting the mast without stressing the wiring may as much or more trouble than messing with the slides.