Strange Catalina 22??

[catfish26]

Well,
The boss and I went on a sea trial of a Cat 22 yesterday. The boat is owned by a gentleman who admits that he is a novice (as are we). Here's the deal, the mast had a groove for the doohickies that attach to the mainsail, but the odd thing was that there was a depresion (looked like a factory depression) in the mast about a foot over the boom that opened to allow the doohickies to slip out. Consequently, it was impossible to raise the mainsail with one person despite the halyard being rigged to the cockpit. One person had to insert the doohickies as they slipped out of the groove while the other person worked the winch. My question: Is there a plate missing from this mast that would ordinarily prevent the doohickies from gaining freedom? or (I don't believe it) are all Cat 22s similarly designed?
Thanks,
Glen

[GeorgeB]

What you are looking for is a “Sail Track Stop” and you can get them at places like West Marine or Defender. The “Doohickeys” are called sail slugs and you prefeed them into mast slot and lock them in place with the sail track stop (you can do this at the dock). Then you can hoist at will from the cockpit. Especially on small boats, the mainsail folds more compactly on the boom if the slugs are let out of the slot at the end of your sail. A previous owner must have misplaced the stop as it is rather small. The C22’s originally didn’t have sail slugs but instead, you had to and feed the bolt rope up the slot. Needless to say, you had to do all of this from the mast. The sail slugs makes it more convenient.

[camaraderie]

The sail slides are generally fed in before raising the sail then another do-hickey that looks like a thumbscrew attached to a sail slide is slid into place and tightened to hold the slides in place.
You can easily fabricate a simple stopper if the one on the boat is gone.

Ahh...GB beat me to it while I was typing! Exactly!

[catfish26]

AH-HAH!! One Doohickey deserves another. It all is crystal clear to me now.
Thanks,
Glen

[Wayne25]

Catalina makes plates that cover the mast gate when you convert to sail slugs. See this link. Catalina Direct: C-22 MastGater Sail Track Gate

[djodenda]

Originally Posted by Wayne25

Catalina makes plates that cover the mast gate when you convert to sail slugs. See this link. Catalina Direct: C-22 MastGater Sail Track Gate

I bought and installed one on my C22....

Nicely built, but, as you can see... expensive.

It allows you to get the main closer to the boom while furling/reefing, which is nice.

If I had to do it again, I would buy one.

David