Has anyone installed Tides Track with the mast in place
I was thinking remove the wishboom weight off the rig to straighten it and needed pull it up with the spare halyard
Yes, I have and it wasn’t a big deal, Thor. I’ve forgotten what boat you have since it’s not in your signature. The trick is to use soap and slide it up through the forward port. The track comes with instructions. There might even be a video out there.
Joe Valinoti
S/V iL Gatto NS30U #221
Sea Harbour YC
Oriental, NC USA
Thor,
I did Tides Track on my 26C taking the track down below and feeding it through the forward port, just as Joe described. I used brute force for the final part, which worked too. It was a solo job, don’t think it would’ve been hard at all if I’d been as smart as Joe and applied some soap. You shouldn’t need to remove the wishbone, or use the spare halyard, to do it with the mast in place.
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch 26U #233
Thor, as well I helped Ed Bahniuk add Tides Track to his NS 26 a few years ago. We did it exactly like Bob mentioned (below). It went quite smoothly.
Cheers,
Butch
Butch Garren
Nonsuch 30 #196 “Whiskers II”
SIYC Slip 12
Solomons, MD
Thanks everyone, never would have thought of the window trick!
Helps also to warm the track in the sun a bit so it uncoils more easily. The material’s flexible enough that I’d go very gentle with a heat gun because it’d be easy to slip into overkill.
Although I did it largely solo, it’s useful to have a helper inside to keep the track from twisting. Otherwise the remaining coil inside the boat tends to fall over to one side or the other, which can be a bit of a nuisance. You can uncoil it completely, but then you’ve got the problem of 40+ feet of track not quite fitting on a 26 foot boat. (Although wet track is sort of a substitute for soap, a remark that hints at how I got sensitized to this overhang issue.)
Soaping it is smart. Wish I’d done that.
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch 26U #233
Sun is something in short supply here, weather man blames covid 