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Strong Track System
This page was last updated on January 6, 2008. |
 In
the fall, I had made the decision to order a
Tides Marine Strong
Track system for my mainsail. This low friction system promised
to make mainsail handling a treat, rather than a sometime chore. I
dropped my sail off at my local sail loft, and ordered the system; the
loft would install the hardware on the sail, but I picked up the track
when it arrived and took it home for my own installation. |
 After
storing the large, flat box containing the rolled-up track all winter, the
time finally came for installation. Installation was quite
straightforward; the track section simply slides over (or into, if
you have an internal track) the existing track. The way the coiled
track is secured, one can cut the ties in such a way as to maintain the
integrity of the coil throughout installation, preventing the whole long
coil from unwinding at once. |
 To
install, I simply fed the top part of the track onto the existing bronze
mainsail track, and pushed the new plastic track up the mast (with the
mast on horses) a little at a time, cutting more of the plastic cable ties
as needed to continue working the track up the mast. In my
particular case, the horses were weak, and the force of pushing the track
up the mast started causing the horses to collapse. To stem this, I
tied them together with some line I had around, and then tied the whole
thing to a nearby trailer to stabilize the whole thing. |
 Presently,
I reached the end. As I had suspected, the track was slightly too
long--I had ordered 33'. The directions called for cutting the
excess off at the bottom, but I quickly discovered this wouldn't work
since the bottom of the track featured a widened cutout to allow
installation of the mainsail slugs and a retaining piece. However,
by simply removing the main halyard sheave arrangement at the top of the
mast--which was blocking further progress of the track--I could continue
pushing the excess track upwards. It was easy to cut the top end,
which had only a bevel at the corner, and then shape the new bevel and
redrill for the stop pin, which prevents the sail from being overhoisted. |
 At
the bottom, I secured the track in place with a single machine screw (the
kit comes with a self-tapping screw for this purpose). I drilled and
tapped the mast for the screw, and drove it home. Then, I
reinstalled the metal plate over the base, which is there to hold the sail
slugs in place once installed. |
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 Once
the boat was in the water, I had an opportunity to check out the new
slugs and batten receptacles. The stainless steel slugs added
slightly to the overall stack height of the sail when stowed, and also
caused the sailmaker to remove the jacklines needed to allow the sail to
be pulled down far enough to allow hooking on the reefing hook; this was
something I would have to take up with them later.
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Update
I can highly recommend the Strong
Track system. It's simple to install, quite inexpensive, and works
like a charm. I can drop the sail with zero effort; if I let the
halyard go, the sail will crash completely down without any interference
whatsoever. After several seasons, all the hardware seems to be
holding up well with no signs of wear or other problems.
The long and the short of it: if
you're considering a Strong Track, then just buy it. You won't be
disappointed. |
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