2 small questions

[Capt. smegg]

Hi guys

I'm relatively new to Dart sailing (just over half a season) and the 15 is infact the first cat I've ever layed my hand on, but there are two small questions i must ask; 1. the mainsail is increadibly stiff to hoist, even with two pulling the halyard and one feeding the sail into the slot, someone said melting candle wax in the slot helps but i just wanted to see what you guys thought on this matter? and 2. both of the rudders have almost completely split down the join and we're not sure how to fix them? any suggestions would be much appreciated

Thanks
Edd

[WaveyDavey]

Hi Edd

I use silicone spray lubricant on the mainsail luff to ease hoisting. You can buy it in all good chandlers. I spray it on each side of the sail [edit: luff rope, not the whole sail ] every few weeks, but you could equally spray the mast groove if you tip boat on its side.

Split rudders can be more tricky. You'll probably find some previous posts on this subject if you search the forum archive.

I had a split around 6 inches from the tip of one of my rudders when I bought the boat. I carefully prized open the spilt a few mm with a small screwdriver and scraped out all the loose dirt and fibre glass, then I applied fibre glass resin into the crack and gently pressed the two halves together with g-clamps and wooden blocks until it went off.

Not sure that's how a pro would fix it, but worked for me and no probs 4 years on.

Cheers
David

[Gabriel]

Hi Edd,

It might be worth checking which side of the hook at the top of the mast the main halyard is when you start to pull the sail up. One side is a lot easier to pull than the other.

Gabriel

[Bob Carter]

Hi guys

I'm relatively new to Dart sailing (just over half a season) and the 15 is infact the first cat I've ever layed my hand on, but there are two small questions i must ask; 1. the mainsail is increadibly stiff to hoist, even with two pulling the halyard and one feeding the sail into the slot, someone said melting candle wax in the slot helps but i just wanted to see what you guys thought on this matter? and 2. both of the rudders have almost completely split down the join and we're not sure how to fix them? any suggestions would be much appreciated

Thanks
Edd

I agree with Wavy Davy. Candle Wax is the VERY LAST THING YOU EVER WANT TO TRY. Dry silicon (like Holts Prolube) is the stuff to use. You should also check if it is general friction all the way up or if it is jamming as the sail enters the mast. If the slot is too large at the sail entry point the sail will jam rather than feed into the slot. The entry point should be no wider than 3mm.
Cheers
Bob

[Steve Willis]

Edd,

Welcome !

What is you sail number ? If your boat is a 'Spark' (rather than the later Dart 15 or Sprint 15) then the mast slot may be slightly narrower as the old Spark coloured sails had a thinner bolt rope and a different sail material. This only becomes a potential problem when newer sails are used on those older boats. I had to ease the slot open all the way up the mast on one of our boats when we bought a new sail a couple of years ago.

And yes NO WAX, use silicone spray.

Steve

[Mark Aldridge]

Try a new main halyard, check the halyard rollers are free and in good condition and feed the sail up the mast track (stand on the tramp' facing the mast and ease the sail as you pull). As suggested, use Holt silicone spray andmake sure mast track and bolt rope areas are clean.

Rudders. They need fixing.. Get them to SS Marine for a refurb is my advice. You can get the halyard from SS Marine too..

[Brian Phipps]

Hi Edd, all the posts made well help and allow you to check were the problem lays. Early boats had aluminium sheaves in the halyard boxes causing problems, later these were changed to nylon which was not very successful then changed to tufnol which did good service. We now supply the sheave in a very hard specialist plastic , the sheaves are easy to replace at the the top of the mast and not that hard at the base. Halyard wise the original was 3 x strand pre stretched but we now supply a much better quality rope as you will see on the catparts website www.catparts.windsport.co.uk.
At the recent Sprint15 training session, we went through the techniques of servicing your own rudder system and how to carry out cosmetic gelcoat repairs. The repalcement parts are all on the Windsport website and a full technical support service is avalible by email or over the phone.
Hope to meet you at one of the Sprint 15 events in the future.
All the best
Brian Phipps
Windsport Sprint 15 technical support

[Capt. smegg]

thank you all for the advise, we've just sprayed silicon lubricant into the slot, and we are confident that this will work, and for those interested (steve) my sail number is 1262 which i think is a dart.

[Jaycb]

Hi Cap'n,
I had great difficulty raising the sail the first season I sailed my boat (20 yrs old). Four things helped me:

-Change the halyard to a thicker, pre-stretched one - a stretchy rope is utterly useless for this.
-Change the top sheave which was pretty much jammed solid.
-Smear silicone grease the length of the bolt rope to overcome friction.
-Loosen off a couple of battens that were over-tightened.

any one of the above can sabotage you, and I had all four! No probs now though

Occasionally the thing used to just jam solid a few inches from the top, and that was down to having the knot holding the ring badly positioned, plus making the mistake that Gabriel warned of re. halyard on wrong side of hook.

I can heartily recommend SS Marine for advice/help with your rudder problem.

Hope you enjoy your boat.

[moreair]

I know alot of people buy Silicon Lubricant but for lubricating the Luff Rope I was using a proper Sail Lubricant which was about £13 a can. However I noticed that it was just PTFE (Teflon) based. Then I found "No Nonsense PTFE Spray Lubricant 400ml" at Screwfix which is £2.88 a can. It seems to work well and hasn't had any bad effects. Worth having a look at that price.

[Gordon Deuce]

I've read all the above good stuff but come to you learned folk for advise. On the shore I oftern stain away getting the sail up the last bit, despite feeding it gently into the slot and using silicon spray and rejoice when you hear the ring engage. I then test it with a good tug and apply the down hall and launch. After a couple of tacks in the prestart i find it oftern becomes undone, so i then go head to wind, drop it and rehoist on the water. It might take some time ( usually the length of the race prep signal) before all is restored). Any idea why it appears to be locked and then becomes unlocked under load ? is there a easy rule in orentating the boat during hoisting so that the ring locks easliey and stays there, especially in strong wind with the sail thrashing about egarly awaiting the helm to go. Finally do you all find a prestreached haliyard makes the big difference as i pull away and the rope behaving like a long length of elastic ?

Look forward to hearing from you all.

[Robert]

Hi Gordon
Try to hoist the sail on a slight "port tack" in the first instance because the hook at the top of the mast is on the port side and the ring should slip over more firmly that way. Similarly, unclip on starboard. My sail is reluctant at the last few inches, which I put down to the bottom batten getting involved and making things a bit difficult. I always have to push up the bottom slide manually in order to get a good hook-up when the sail is pulled right up. If these tips don't work you might need a new hook at the top but I'm no expert on that one.

[Gordon Deuce]

Roibert,
Thank you. Approaching the top i stop and hand feed the sail up the track and also slot the guide into the base of the slot to stop it being pinched in the track. This helps but does not always solve the problem.

[George Stephen]

Gordon,

Does this problem only happen with your new sail?

If so, compare the position of the eyelet in the head of the new sail (ie where you attach the ring that goes over the mast hook) with that of the old sail.

My latest sail (some 6 or 7 years old) had the eyelet positioned further away from the luff rope than the one on the old sail. I too had problems like you describe, but only with the new sail..... I was not amused.

I compared the mast hook on my boat with those on later boats. The hooks on the new boats were longer and better formed to hold the ring.

I thought about grinding a deeper "U" in my hook, but reckoned that this might only be a bodge. So I ordered a new hook and rivets from Catparts - problem solved. I can still use my old sail, but after sailing when I've pulled the ring up off the hook I have to rotate the mast quite a long way (clockwise looking down the mast, ie towards the port side) before pulling the sail down to ensure the mast hook doesn't re-engage.....

If you decide to order a new hook and rivets, draw Catparts attention to your need for length in the hook - you don't want them to send you another like the one you may have....

Hope this helps

[Brian Phipps]

Hi all, the variations on mast hook length goes back a long way before Windsport took over the supply of new boats and replacement parts.
All new masts and mast hooks are suppllied as the long version unless specifically requested. THe hook is just 5mm longer but that makes all the difference. The head plate used by Hyde is the same as the Dart18 head plate giving the same tolerance.
The very early Sparks. Dart15 used a very slightly differnt head plate.
Brian.
Windsport Sprint15 technical support , new boats and genuine replacement parts