Rick - Mine are metal I believe they are called slugs. They are made out of some type of aluminum alloy. I sail in the same waters that you are - San Francisco Bay - and I have never had any problem.

Rick,when this happened to me i started changing them one by one...after the 3rd one i removed the sail and had new plastic ones put,changed them all at once.Its been 4 yrs now and no breaks...the white plastic ages and after several yrs they become brittle.I bet your main is original..

Rick, just for grins & giggles, you are aware that West Marine actually started out with their first store in, gasp, Palo Alto! :)

That's be my first source. :D

Rick - as our boat was being delivered the delivery crew lost 7 of the plastic slugs. As a new owner I panicked and asked the local sailmaker to replace all slugs with stainless. Three lessons from that. First watch the thickness of the slides - about half of ours were just a little too thick to slide in the track. Fortunately our sailmaker saw that as his responsibility and ground them down. Second, the friction is higher, meaning a good hoist and trimming is more difficult. Third, the slides we got were slightly longer, meaning that the headboard is now about 8-10 inches higher. Means the halyard connection is just reachable. But the upside is not worrying about breakage

Bill

I'd be worried about putting SS slugs into my aluminum mast - the aluminum is now the weakest part and much harder to replace.

While I haven't had this issue myself, there is certainly a UV aspect to consider here where the plastic slugs probably live much longer in the PNW than in California.

The ultimate solution is probably to purchase a Tide Marine Strong Track and the associated SS slides. This will make hoisting and lowering easier also.

If you continue breaking new slides you probably need to look at what you are doing for halyard tension and other sail trim settings...

My previous C34 had brass slugs where the battens met the luff. No idea from whence they came!

I wonder what's breaking the slugs. Could reefing be the problem? When you reef really hard, does that put extraordinary (downward) pressure on the slugs? You may want to talk to your sailmaker about this.

Rick - I bought the boat with an original Catalina main sail that had metal slugs. I did not install them myself. It may have been an option that can be ordered - I guess. There is a sail maker in San Mateo just off of HWY 101 and Peninsula ave. that I took my jib to be resown.

Leading Edge Sails
1125 N Amphlett Blvd
San Mateo, CA 94401
(650) 347-2540

He will be able to install new ones for you.
I will be at the race this Saturday March 2nd. Come join me if you can. Race starts at 1:00 and everyone arrives for orientation at 11: 00 AM. Nice warm weather this weekend. Drop me a PM.

You can see the slugs and the sail has a feature for reefing that I had not seen before on any other sail.

Hope to see there.

The only time I've ever broken slugs, is while reefing. Since then, I've marked the halyard so that the main only descends to where the slugs are able to stack above bolt that keeps them from falling out of the track slot. No more broken slugs. Personally, I would not want to use a metal slug, as I'd prefer to have the slug fail before tearing the sail.

I think this is definitely age related. The sun does a number on plastics. I have used metal slugs and they can bind at times. Once I replaced them all with the new plastic D shape slugs things were smooth form there on out.

Related question -- is there a way to replace these slides without doing any sewing? I'm ashamed to say I'm terrible at it.

Captain Rick - sorry it me so long to respond. My metal slugs came with the boat.

My C36 is now in its 21st year. During the first five, while on the Ches. Bay, I was replacing the plastic slugs on a regular basis. Even kept a supply of extras because of the regularity of the event. Most freqently prompted by an unplanned gybe.

The Annapolis North Loft suggested that bronze slides be installed at the location of each full length batten....to take the strain in the event of a gybe.

Since then (15-16 years) NO plastic slug failure. This would suggest that UV is not a factor.

I still have my supply of extra plastic slugs should I ever need them.

Brian Giersch
New Bern, NC
Encore #1245

I think the slides breaking is a combo of UV breakdown and the stresses from reefing (I broke the 2nd slug up 3 weeks ago after reefing in about 18kts.)

I was able to replace without sewing - I slipped the webbing loop through the slide's loop then around the entire slide... - tight fit!!

[QUOTE=HowLin;17976]I was able to replace without sewing - I slipped the webbing loop through the slide's loop then around the entire slide... - tight fit!![/QUOTE]

I'm not sure I get how you did this...

[QUOTE=FlyMeAway;17978]I'm not sure I get how you did this...[/QUOTE]

I am thinking he did something similar to this with the web loop.

Yup; ... :D

Hahaha obvious. I was still thinking in terms of not being able to get the slide off of my mast...

This was our 3rd season in salt water before we hulled our this spring in Florida. I know going to salt water I can sure tell the difference raising and lowering the main at times. Our first year as we came down the east coast from the great lakes we got our new main from Mack sails. The slides they use are roller slides. They work well most of the time but I have noticed that if it has not rained for a month or more it gets a while lot harder to raise the main. So my fix is to take our 2 gallon pump sprayer of fresh water and rinse the saill track out. It is my take the salt air adds extra friction to the slides.