Mast sleeve

[Rick Hueschen]

I will be starting construction of the sails on my Tiki 21 soon. I am currently making my
material list. Can anyone give suggestions for the best material to use for the mast
"sleeve". If I use the 6oz dacron as a mast sleeve, will it compress enough when lowering
the main sail ?

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Hi Rick,

Nev and I had Jeckell sails with heavy weight cruising sail material using the design sail plan. We always had trouble with those sails. It was not easy to raise or lower them and there was a lot of chafe and damage from the halyards rubbing inside the sleeve. Taking the halyards outa the sleeve improved things a lot, but finally the zipper broke! So then we could do nothing with the sail and it had so many holes in the sleeve we decided to just have the sailmaker cut off the sleeve and put in grommets for rope lacings. That turns out to be best for us.

With rope lacings, it is essential to get the lacings done properly. We used the exact method in the John Leather book about gaff rigs. Using some old rope we had on hand, we did the lacing in just a couple minutes and the sails go up and down easily now with no chafe, and good shape too. There is no problem with bunching now and no "wet tee shirt" type of problem with the material binding on rainy days.

I suppose there is no easy decision re boats. Our lacings are good for the kind of sailing we do which is all cruising and almost no racing. The sleeve makes a fantastic shape there at the mast, but we could not use it because of the heavy loading it left us with. As elderly cruisers who do not race, we were interested in safety and easy sail handling and that is what we have with rope lacing. If you have racing in you, the sleeve might be better.

Ann

[Polinesio - Tarcisio Silva]

Rick,
My Tiki 21' "Polinesio" using 6oz dacron (same cloth of sail) as a mast sleeve since 2000. And from this experience I can say it work very well. But my sail is forever on mast. It don't use zipper to take off the sail.
Is recommendable to use a sail cover made of acrilic canva like "Sumbrella cloth" to protec and fit the sail.
Best winds,
Tarcisio.

[boatsmith]

Sailrite reccomends a diffrerent material for the sleeve to make it easier to stow.
Our Tiki 30 sail is from Jeckels and is an ordeal to scrunch up tight enough to get a generous sized cover on. David

[Bob Bois]

The mainsail on our Tiki 30 was from Jeckells and we didn't have a lot of trouble raising and lowering it, but I agree with David: it was "work" to wrestle the thing into the sail cover! Bob

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Sail Covers:

A friend of ours sewed a trial stack pack type sail cover for us which we are still altering and improving. Guess we are nearly finished. After our trans Atlantic in 2002, we built booms for Peace and lazy jacks too. The sail cover is attached to the lazy jacks and it passes under the sail and over the boom. The sail lowers into the cover and we just close the cover on top and it is all done. No more struggle at all. We plan to have the same system for the main later this year. I will try to have our visitors photograph this for us on Saturday and show us how to post photos on the internet.

[Helen Sheridan]

Hi Rick,
I used to own a 21 which had a dacron mast sleeve on the mainsail (Jeckylls). It worked ok but did tend to bunch up a bit when lowering the sail, the sleeve might have been slightly tight which wouldn't help.
When I made a Tiki style sail for my Hitia, I used a UV resistant polyester canvas which has worked a treat.
Whatever you decide to use make sure you check its UV resistance and how much it stretches when wet e.g. acrylic canvas stretches considerably more than the 6oz dacron.
Make sure you make the sleeve wide enough!

[Brian Gartland]

Hey Ann and Nev,
Could you give me a little guidance on the rope lacings? Ab and I spent all day Sunday sailing the new boat around to our mooring and the only thing we didn't like was having to feed little cars onto a track every time we raised the sails. There are grommets on the sail that hold the little cars that, I think, would work for rope lacings. Ab said that she thought you had a book that told you how to do it. If you post the title I'll buy it from Amazon. Thanks.
Brian
Ann and Neville Clement said:

Hi Rick,

Nev and I had Jeckell sails with heavy weight cruising sail material using the design sail plan. We always had trouble with those sails. It was not easy to raise or lower them and there was a lot of chafe and damage from the halyards rubbing inside the sleeve. Taking the halyards outa the sleeve improved things a lot, but finally the zipper broke! So then we could do nothing with the sail and it had so many holes in the sleeve we decided to just have the sailmaker cut off the sleeve and put in grommets for rope lacings. That turns out to be best for us.

With rope lacings, it is essential to get the lacings done properly. We used the exact method in the John Leather book about gaff rigs. Using some old rope we had on hand, we did the lacing in just a couple minutes and the sails go up and down easily now with no chafe, and good shape too. There is no problem with bunching now and no "wet tee shirt" type of problem with the material binding on rainy days.

I suppose there is no easy decision re boats. Our lacings are good for the kind of sailing we do which is all cruising and almost no racing. The sleeve makes a fantastic shape there at the mast, but we could not use it because of the heavy loading it left us with. As elderly cruisers who do not race, we were interested in safety and easy sail handling and that is what we have with rope lacing. If you have racing in you, the sleeve might be better.

Ann

[boatsmith]

Brian, The book Ann is referring to is called The Gaff Rig by John Leather. David

[Brian Gartland]

thanks, I'll buy it.
boatsmith said:

Brian, The book Ann is referring to is called The Gaff Rig by John Leather. David

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Hi Brian and David,
Yes, it is John Leather's Gaff Rig book and there is a figure drawing that makes it all clear how to use rope lacings. We have used 5/16 line and were lucky to find a rope that is kind of slippery so it runs well. Do not use nylon. Go for some low stretch braid. Ours was the least expensive low stretch and it works fine. If I were not so electronically challenged, I would be able to photograph the figure and send it to you... perhaps you can do this for the others. Only the figure drawing is needed for complete understanding. Observe carefully and repeat it exactly or you will be disappointed. Actually though, we did love the book and keep it on board always, so purchase might be the best plan.
What will you do with the sail track? Is it internal (no problem) or is it external and might cause damage and snarls? Our mast section is a circle, but I don't see why an oval or even a moderate tear drop section would not work out ok.
Happy to hear of you and Ab sailing together. How does the baby like it?
Love, Ann and NEv