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Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 8:47 am
by AndrewG
Just had another broken luff track. The one was caused by the mainsail luff rope coming out at that point. This could well have been water pressure on the sail, as I was doing some fairly dramatic pitch poles.

This time, it wasnt caused by the batten pocket touching the track or the mast join fitting collapsing, nor was it UV degradation as it is less than a year old.
Since it isnt one factor causing the mast track failures, I have to come to the conclusion that it just isnt strong enough and we need a thicker section of plastic for the track, or at least a less brittle plastic. Have we exhausted all the possible track sections now on the market?

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 11:19 am
by bristollad
do you think it could be to do with how much batten tension you are running andrew?

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 10:06 pm
by DangerBoy
Have to bear in mind Andrew that you sail your boat twice as much as anyone else so it's going to fatigue!

I suspect pitch pole doesn't help though

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2017 11:55 am
by AndrewG
I don't think the mast track failure in this case was caused by excessive batten tension as the damage wasnt next to the batten pocket, and in any case I dont have that much tension on. You could argue that if the sail is under water pressure from a pitchpole, then something is bound to give, but I think that a thicker stronger track could prevent this and many other failures (someone mentioned using the 49er track?). If you tip the boat over and let the main is right out to the shroud, the batten pocket plastic does not appear to be pressing into the side wall of the track at all, but levers up the windward side of the track. So it may be that the thickness of the mast track could be increased without it touching the batten pockets any more than it does at present. You'll need to see tip the boat over on the shore with the sail up to see what I mean.

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2017 12:28 pm
by PaulM
AndrewG wrote: You'll need to see tip the boat over on the shore with the sail up to see what I mean.


or just take a picture when someone else's boat is on its side :wink:

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 2:41 pm
by bristollad
Looks to me as if the leeward battern pocket is just acting like a lever ?

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 6:52 pm
by bristollad
Another thought is did this happened with the old bolt rope on the older sails wondering weather because we are now using a plastic bolt rope rather then a actul bolt rope there maybe less give so hard plastic in a track that's hard plastic +the batten pocket as a lever effect equals track breaking ?

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 9:55 am
by Rick

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:37 am
by avendit
So, where are we at the end of the season?

Checking my mast over I found my lower baton position in mid-failure. This may help move the debate forward a little as it looks like its not sudden failure as certainly I had been assuming. The other side of the track in the same place was not cracked, but the way it came off when I was prepping the repair showed that it had also weakened.

track_small.jpg


I use low to oops-I-forgot-to-put-any-on baton tension, so I can eliminate that as a cause. And I'm also still using an old style sail.

Weirdly, the repair kit I picked up from Selden a while back turned out to have the S2 type track in it? Have they just sent me the wrong thing? I bought a new top mast and it still came with a S3/4 track, so I am assuming we didn't switch over or anything? I've emailed them, but no reply yet.

Andrew,
MPS255

PS, image size upload limit on the forum is teeeny. bigger pic here:
http://www.silicon-net.co.uk/masttrack.jpg

Re: Broken luff track?

Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 6:29 pm
by Dieter SUI
After yet another broken luff track I am fed up with the current mast design and seriously considering moving out of the class. The problem has been around for more than 10 years but nothing has happened.

I had the broken parts replaced over and over again but do not want to do this again and again. It is only too obvious that the design or construction in inherently flawed. A few years ago the Class voted for new design trials (mast and sails) but the Committee and builders have unilaterally decided to stop the development. Aparently it has been accepted that sailors fix broken luff tracks several times a year. A real shame because the boat is fun to sail and only too bad that the problem seems to persist forever.