Mainsail plastic sliders

[Tom Madden]

i have a 2007 34ft catalina mkII, hull number 1768.  i have a regular (non furling) mainsail.  while sailing today in 30 knot wind (with my mainsail reefed) i blew out two plastic sliders (holding the mainsail luff to mast, attached to the track.)  the plastic sliders that broke were above the reef point, probably the third and fourth slides above the reef.

it seems to me these sliders should not have broke, even though they are made of plastic.  the breaks appeared to be caused by pressure of the sail in these strong winds.  i'm certain i had the mainsail properly reefed (i have a single slab reefing system.)

i am wondering if anyone has any experience or input on this issue.  i'm set to get the mainsail fixed tomorrow, but was hoping to learn from other experiences.

thanks in advance for your help.

tom madden 

[waterdog]

Seems like they shouldn't have gone at such a young age.

I had an older one go just pulling the main down a couple of weeks ago.   Mine were of an age where I lost confidence in all of them.   So I cut them all off and replaced them with new ones.   I ordered them from Sailrite and went with heavy duty shackles to attach the slides as well.   These seem to work really well.   Definitely makes replacing sail slides a do it yourself job.  Oh and with a newly painted track (carefully sanded in prep), new bushings in the sheaves, it goes up and down real smooth.

[Kyle Ewing]

I've seen the sliders break on a sail on two occasions during tacks in heavy wind.  The shock load seems to get them.

[dave davis]

I blew-up three or four during a wild hi-wind jibe. I took the main back to the sail doctor and he sewed in new bronze slugs(no plastic). They should last.