by JonLee on Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:20 am
Thanks to this thread, I've used a track stop more or less from day one, and consider it indepensiblle. Like you, Sean, I usually motor out to open water and then raise the sail, and it is really, really nice to be able to just haul on the halyards when I'm ready to go.
Here's how it works for me. Step 1, is, of course, to raise the mast. Then, while I'm dockside (sometimes even when I'm still on the trailer), I'll slide the gaff and mains'l cars all onto the sail track and put a track stop in. Since I usually have the gaff pretty securely lashed to the boom (and since the sail track starts well above the gooseneck), I have to loosen a number of my sail ties first, and then once the gaff, cars, and stop are in place, I'll get the by-then escaping sail back under control and neatly tied down again. When I'm out and ready to raise sail, I cast off the ties, haul on the halyards and am off. Back at the dock, the track stop comes off, along with the cars and gaff. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to keep the whole mess on with the mast down...