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Submitted
on March 3, 2006 by Daniel Wolff
Question: Hello, I am about to buy a 2001 Hylas 46 that
has a North Marathon 3DL main sail. The sail is also from 2001. I have
a few questions:
1) Is there anything specific I should be watching out for on the sail itself as well as the rigging during the survey and the sea trial?
2)
There are no bat cars but heavy duty sail slugs. Any issues with that?
(see picture, right)
3) Any specific maintenance or cleaning issue I should be aware of?
4) There is a lazy jack on the boom and a sail bag. Is there any reason why I couldn't replace the sail bag with a "Stack Pack", or
5) Is a North Marathon 3DL suited for use with an in-boom furling? If so, is there a brand that works better?
Thank you very much
Daniel
Answer: Hi Daniel,
Since the sail has been in service since 2001 with the current hardware, you should not be concerned about whether the parts are adequate or not. The slides might be worn. You can tell that just by looking at them closely. If they are worn away to the point where they are binding in the track, you can have them replaced at a modest cost, or spend a few hours doing it yourself. If this is a Marathon mainsail it should have full length battens.
The connection between the battens and the luff car is the area where the hardware is most likely to be fatigued. If the boat has been in continual use for 5 years, the sail will definitely be nearing the end of its service life so you should expect some maintenance costs.
North makes a sail cover that includes an integral lazy jack system called a Quick Cover. You could replace the cover and lazy jacks with a Quick Cover, but if the existing parts are in good repair, I would suggest living with them for a while before spending money replacing something that works. One of the advantages of buying a used boat is that the previous owner has spent a lot of time sorting everything out.
If you eventually decide to convert to in-boom furling you will want to buy a new mainsail that is purpose built for the furling system. Most in boom furling systems require a new spar as well, or at a minimum a modification to your current spar.
Regards,
Dan Neri
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