Main sail lug attachment question

[davidpm]

I have seen a few main sails with a puzzling lug attachment setup.

The lugs are directly attached to the luff from the head down to the first reef point.
From that point down there is a rope that is woven into the luff and the bottom 3 or 4 cars are attached to this rope.

What is the purpose of this?

[paulk]

That is so when the lugs stack up,(when you lower the sail to put in a reef), the sail doesn't get bunched on top of them, and you can hook the tack down properly to the boom. Otherwise, the tack wouldn't be down at the gooseneck, but would be up on top of the bunched lugs, and the reef wouldn't set properly. On some boats the stacked lugs might get higher than a crew could easily reach,too. Easier to see by actually putting in a reef than trying to explain.

[RichH]

Called 'luff jackline'. It allows the slugs to become 'loosely attached' from the luff when the sail is dropped allowing all the slugs to 'stack up' one on top of the other in the track. Without the jackline the 'folds' of the sail make the 'stack up' too bulky to affect a (first) reef.

When the sail is dropped (sufficiently for the first reef) the jackline automatically loosens and consequently the attached slugs (attached the jackline) are no longer 'rigidly' attached to the sail's luff.
When the luff is fully tensioned the jackline also becomes tensioned thus holding the slugs in 'normal' position.

Simple speak: such makes reefing easier.

[RhythmDoctor]

My boat has a luff jackline up to the first reefing point, but not up to the second reefing point. I wanted to rig a second reef but did not want to modify the sail, so I removed the sail stop and replaced it with a mast gate that allows the lugs to fall all the way to the boom. They still stack up, but much lower than before.

[davidpm]

Originally Posted by RhythmDoctor

with a mast gate

What is a mast gate?
Did you buy it or fabricate?
What does it look like?

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by davidpm

What is a mast gate?
Did you buy it or fabricate?
What does it look like?

I bought it from CatalinaDirect.

This one is made specifically for Catalina 25 and 250, although the length of the rod needs to be customized for each boat with a grinder. The rod fills the slot up so the slugs do not fall out. But instead of stopping the slugs like a sail stop, they fall past the slot down to the boom.

This arrangement is not particularly good for trailer sailors because removing the gate before/after every sail is a bit of a pain. But for those who remove their sails seasonally, it's no problem.

[davidpm]

I found this great website with lots of info in the subject.

Photo Album of Slug placement for reefing, Mastgates and Jacklines

and this
MetalMast Mainsail Gates