I saw this video and tried Mark’s design on my boat. It worked great. Prior to this, I had to use a winch to raise the main and dousing it was always problematic. Now, raising and lowering the main is so much easier. Thanks Mark. One change I did make was to use a white, synthetic sanding pad instead of the green cleaning pad Mark used. The white one is thicker, sturdier and doesn’t leave any residue.
I think Mark could have filed and sanded each sail block on a board and kept them. I notice nobody paints their masts. You have the right idea that you pop your mast out of the boat and service it once a year.
It's difficult (aka expensive) to get paints to stick to an anodised aluminium surface, that and I think that many people are of the opinion that a bare anodised mast highlights problems with corrosion setting in a lot more than a painted mast would hide. Avoids the whole question of "Why have you painted your mast...and what is it like underneath that paint?" That being said, you can quite easily dye the aluminium any colour you want during the anodising process for a pretty minimal cost, so I'm not sure why that isn't done more often. Something to think about when having your mast completely overhauled perhaps? Would be nice for the mast's colour scheme to match the boat a bit more than 'bare' alloy.
I found it just as quick and far more effective to go up in my bosuns chair and clean properly on the way up and then apply sailkote on the way back down as those pads always leave green dust even after washing
A word of warning; Green pads are equivalent to around a 4--600 grit sandpaper. This means that, if you do this enough, you will remove the anodizing in your sail track. How many times it takes is probably in the dozens, if not 100~200. Point being, it's abrasive, so don't do this obsessively or you'll remove the corrosion resistance from your sail track.
be careful not to use the scouring pads with grit like Scotchbrite, because the grit will scratch through the anodizing and promote corrosion, which will drastically increase friction.
Our sailing club has trees right up to where the boats are stored in the parking lot. We often get tree junk & spiders in the track as well as the wind indicators. I made up a pvc pipe with hose fittings on each end. I put a spray nozzle I can lock open on one end & hook a shutoff valve on the other so I can control the water flow. The pipe is about 8' shorter than the mast of my keel boat and I can spray the track out with a jet of water as well as spray off the mast head sheaves and the windex without dropping the mast or climbing. It has a line at the top for the halyard and I attach a safety line to the halyard incase the halyard comes loose which it never has. In a few short minutes I can clean the mast head & track and then store it under the trailer until the next time I need it.
1. A thicker, or multi layer "snug fitting" scouring pad should be used in the sail track cleaning. 2 Be certain the zip ties are strong or use rope so they wont break if it gets jammed. 2. Discard the pad after cleaning the track. 3. Use a new pad to apply the Silicone. Silicone is available in paste or spray application form . Verify the content of silicone by test spraying, some are like water some are like gel. The gel has more silicone content. Note : Silicone lubricant in spray is available from many brands, depending on the brand the silicone content is diluted , therefore some brands will have minimal amounts of silicone. choose wisely for the application. A good gel type spray is "super lube brand" Silicone is commonly used in the food machine maintenance industry , hence, its safe for you. WD 40 "dry" is very confusing as the container is identical to the famous oil based version.
I'd stay away from silicone greases, or any kind of grease to be honest, it attracts dust and eventually turns into a grinding paste, which does more harm than good when it starts abrading away the track and blocks. It's also an absolute nightmare to clean out before regreasing, because greasing on top of old grease creates a useless mess. Silicone grease has it's own problems, namely it's poor adhesion to many metals and it's very limited load capability. It needs to be extremely thick to actually lubricate under a load. This is why he's using a PTFE spray, which doesn't allow airborne dust to stick to it. It's like Teflon-coating the inside of the sail track, albeit temporarily.
I like this as I have a 1980 with an internal sail track like Marks and I just got a new mainsail so I’ll be doing this cleaning procedure before I put the new on. Was also wondering about lubing the sail track so that’s answered as well
Tim, I'd prefer a high quality solution. If you are going to post the Dollarama version (which I'm sure some appreciate) then also tell us the proper way to do this with good materials.
I’m sure any marina service department would be happy to sell you a more quality solution at a quality price. Meanwhile the rest of us can enjoy this practical, budget version.
I would be really interested in a comprehensive look at mast corrosion, treatments and when to run. I'm considering buying a boat the is showing signs ( bubbling the urethane coating, most likely from combing different metals without isolation). I haven't seen where corrosion has penetrated through the aluminum mast but I have no expertise in this field. Are there reasonable tests, treatments, and ways to get a comprehensive understanding?
We did this last year on our catalina 380 Lubricant we used after cleaning was Sailcoat. I got so tough to pull up had to do something. We didn't use scouring pads which is an excellent idea.
Yes to PTFE lubricant, but hard pass on the dish soap. I tried this once on my dinghy, worked great for a while until I laid it up for a few months. The dish soap congeals and attracts airborne dust until it turns into a paste. Needless to say, it only made getting the sail up and down far worse than before, plus it was a devil to clean out of there. PTFE lubricant and never had a problem since.
Almost all sail track blocks that are plastic are made from high-strength Nylon, which is chemically impervious to both the solvent and oils in _normal_ WD-40. What they aren't resistant to is dust sticking to the lubricant, which grinds away the plastic. This is why he's using _dry_ PTFE lubricant, made by WD-40. The solvent evaporates and deposits a thin film of PTFE (aka Teflon) on the inside of the sail track, so dust particles can't stick to it and are washed off.
WD-40 as a company make a lot of different specialist lubricants, including the PTFE spray. They also make degreasers and rust removal products. It's why it's important to actually read what it says on the front of the can, because it might not be the bog-standard _WD-40_ you immediately think it is.
