We have been investigating blade jibs and wondered if anyone could help us with finding the position to fit a suitable track? When speaking to Mr. Parker of Parker and Kay Sailmakers, he said he thought that a strengthened area was built into the boat even if the track was not fitted from new.

Any advice on the whole subject would be welcome.

Anne and Dennis Kell

Redshank 275/19

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Anne & Dennis

You are right. There's a normal place where the track is installed inside the shrouds on the cabin top. I will look out some photos if I have any. Will be at the boat hope fully next weekend and will measure.

Tim

Hello Redshank!

In a stiff but not excessive wind, one of our blade tracks pulled out of the deck. It had been attached by screws. By coincidence our fore cabin ceiling carpet liner was sagging and about to be replaced so we were able to expose the area and reattach both tracks with bolts backed by penny washers to spread the load. I do not recall any specially thick areas of fibreglass where the tracks go but I may have not noticed at the time. All is well now and I have great confidence that the blade tracks will not be parting from the deck again.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your blade. It's a very useful sail.

Ken - Vol-au-vent

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Delphine has a blade jib. If we're going to be beating, we use the blade as it's more manageable and there doesn't seem to be a significant loss of speed by comparison with using the genoa. I've taken a couple of photos which give an idea of the location of the track - let me know if you'd like me to make some measurements as well, which I could do next weekend.

Gilliane

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Thanks for all the helpful advice and pictures. Hopefully, we shall be able to install the track and have Redshank pointing better next season.

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Have you done this? Any top tips?

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Sail ordered and various crosses made from tape stuck on the coachroof! We are awaiting the sail before finally deciding where to fit the track. Those we have seen, are very different from that suggested by the sailmaker so still pondering.

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Well keep the thread updated! I am in the same position. Sail ordered. Sailmaker told me that Andrew's track on Vela is too short! (If you are reading this Andrew, its obviously going to make all the difference.......).Needs to be at least 50 cm apparantly. A quick look on the Barton website the other day shows the shortest standar size to be 60cm though I suppose you can just cut a bit off!

I havent measured the width of the ones on Vela yet but I dont think they are big. 20mm?

http://www.bartonmarine....iders-for-20mm-track.asp 

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PS I am thinking to just drill from the deck side. In the fore cabin I am just going to cap the bolts and leave them exposed. In the heads I think there is a double skin so will have to make a hole in the inner skin with a hole saw to get the penny washer and nut in and then cap the holes somehow.

What I did when I did the mainsheet track in the cockpit was order every length of bolt from orbital fasteners which come in 5mm increments so ended up with the perfect lengths!

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