Having had them on three different boats, I’m a big fan. But, I want to make an inspection suggestion for those who have them. This is based on recently helping a friend remove the 24-year-old (!) Tides track on his boat.
At more than twice the service life suggested by the factory, it was certainly replacement time. We expected it to be brittle and hard. Despite a lot of little plastic bits flaking off as we pulled it down, it came off easily, bending as much as a new track. This allowed us to easily guide it through the front cabin port and out the companionway, simply reversing the recommended installation process. (A 95F day certainly helped warm it and make it pliable.)
The catch was four little “plinks” on the top of my head, one for the top of each sheared-off bolt that came off the underlying original stainless steel track. They appeared to have each corroded over time.
First, there’s the question of whether you want to trust a sail track with missing bolts. One of our group suggesting that putting the new Tides Track over the stainless track would distribute the forces enough to get away with it. I wouldn’t. This kind of problem makes you wonder how the other bolts are doing.
In this case, it was moot. Those sheared bolts were right where the stainless track attached to the upper mast part mates with the track attached to the lower part. This caused the upper track to deviate just enough from the lower that getting a new track up wasn’t an option until this is dealt with.
So my friend is faced with either (a) paying for either a rigger to go up the mast, inspecting the bolts, removing, re-tapping, and replacing them; or, (b) paying to pull the mast and doing the job himself on the hard.
That leads to the suggestion: Tides tracks seem to be as easy to remove as they are to install. So, consider dropping yours now and then to inspect the health of the sail track underneath.
I second Bob’s suggestion, and would go a step further. If your boat is more than 30 years old and you don’t know that your mast was properly inspected in the last 5 years… step it and do an inspection.
I’m no expert, but I’m accumulating experience maintaining Soave. My three years with Soave have taught me that when you do objective inspections on a 35 year old boat, you always find lots of stuff approaching end-of-life and some stuff beyond its usable life.
For me, finding badly corroded stainless bolts or screws on an aluminum mast would be more than enough justification to do a mast inspection. My preference is to step the mast and inspect it on the ground, the quality of the inspection and any remediations will be better than if you or someone you hire tries to do it aloft.
Our boats were very well built, but the materials used to isolate stainless from aluminum don’t last forever. When they fail corrosion begins, and in some places it’s only detectable if you disassemble and inspect.
Sorry to offer unsolicited advice, but I was surprised by what I’ve found on Soave and I know her PO spared no expense maintaining her.
I’ll join in the crowd suggesting that if you’re Tides marine track is past its life replace it at a non- critical time. It’s not something that most surveyors are going to notice. It has a serial number on a metal plate at its base and the factory can tell you the age from that. I had a sail slug break out on the way to the rendezvous and upon learning that happened due to it being past its useful life I cancelled my offshore trip to join you in Long Island Sound. I’ve captained a boat where all the sail slugs broke leaving the main attached by the head, tack, and clew only and it was not fun.
It was a mess taking down the old track but me and another senior woman sailor had the new one up in about 2 hours. The mast cleat the tack attached to did need to come off and thankfully the bolts were not frozen or the taps stripped.
Since the boat is new to me I will get the mast down and have it inspected this winter as Bob suggests .