How to put on new sail

[Peter Dubé]

I'm planning on putting on a new sail in the near future. I think I read somewhere that to put it on you need to take the hinge apart. Is this correct?. Is it pretty straigtforward?. Any thing to watch out for?.

Thanks

Peter

[Catawampus]

I've installed the sail on my Sun Cat twice. When I bought her on Cape Cod and trailered her home the original sail was off and folded in the cabin. My second time was a couple of weeks ago when I installed the new sail. It wasn't easy either time and I recommend making it a two or three-person effort.
Here's what I did:
Raise the mast.
Rotate the gaff on its gooseneck 90 degrees so that the track is open to the left or right instead of down and then fold the gaff up toward the mast until they are parallel.
Slide the gaff up until the gaff is above the hinge.
While one person holds the gaff in this position, lower the mast making sure that the gaff stays above the hinge.
Now the really hard part: Insert the sail slugs through the gap at the open hinge from back to front and insert them into the track below the hinge. This is difficult, but it can be done. I had to start with the slugs sideways to get them through the gap, and then pull them far enough so I could turn them and push them into the track.
Once the slugs are all in, raise the mast again without letting the gaff drop into the hinge until the mast is fully up.
Next feed the head of the sail into the gaff track and secure it, then do the same with the foot of the sail in to the track on the boom.
That's it.
(Some use of expletives may be required during the installation of the sail slugs.)

[Peter Dubé]

On another forum I found a method that involves taking apart the hinge. Removing the two bolts at the rear of the mast, seeing the mast aside, removing the gaff, attaching new sail to boom, slugs in stub, gaff back in, attach sail to gaff, reinstall to mast.

Peter

[Craig]

Un-bolting the hinge is the easiest, safest way to remove/install the sail even though it might not seem so. Does help to have extra hands. Just don't loose any hardware.

[Tom L.]

I installed robust slides in the mast slot and then attached the sail using screw pin s.s. shackles. Makes it much easier to remove the sail. Sailrite has the hardware.

Tom L.

[Joseph]

I remove the sail at the end of every season (just did it). With large pin on and the mast down on the gallows I remove the bolts at the hinge and place the mast on its side (I use a thin line to keep it attached to the boom), then I free the head of the sail at the gaff neck, and the tack at the the gooseneck, and remove the top of the luff from the gaff and the foot from the boom more or less at the same time. Finally, I carefully remove the long pin lift the neck of the gaff from the mast track, remove the slugs at the luff from the bottom portion of the mast and replace the neck of the gaff in the mast track and put the large pin in place and keep all lines in place. I fasten the mast sideways on top of the hinge and cover the entire structure with a plastic sheet and wrapping tape. I bring the sail to an open lawn, remove the four battens and fold it along the leech, then fold the foot bringing the tack to the clew and roll the sail in loose folds.

Reversing the operation to rig the sail back is a bit more difficult, but the onset of Spring makes it feel much easier...

Hope this helps.

J.

[Peter Dubé]

Thanks!. That does help a lot.

Peter