Sail Track; is more than one piece okay?

[decurtis]

Sail track is the last hardware I need to order for my Pocketship. Does the length of track have to be continuous or can it be 2 sections? The track comes in 6 foot and 12 foot lengths and the shipping for the 12 foot will probably be more expensive because it will be shipped by truck and not regular mail.

[John C. Harris]

As a result of either penury or parsimony, over the years I've had sailboats with pieced-together sailtrack. It works, but it takes a lot of fussing with a metal file and candle wax (lubricant) to get the slides to move over the joints. As long as you expect that and get it working smoothly before you get on the water, that's okay.

There's a single piece of track on hull #1 and the slides were really sticky on that one. It had rough edges or something. Silicone lubricant fixed it, although it still sticks once in awhile. You want the sail to come down in a "whoosh!", ideally.

[decurtis]

Looks like I will be using two pieces of sail track. The 12 foot lengths would have to be truck freighted to me at a cost of $200-500. That's 2 to 4 times the cost of the sail track itself and mailing four 6 foot sections will only cost $12.95. John , thanks for the hints about using more than one piece. I will be sure to carefully test everything before heading out on the water.