slippery tape

[killarney_sailor]

Just wanted to make note of a boat experiment that went well. I bought some "slippery tape" from Lee Valley Tools and put it on the bottoms and drawer slides on the boat along with the companionway slide. It did a really good job of reducing friction and making everything slide more easily. I did 11 drawers and the companionway with one roll (a lot of cutting the wide tape in half and it fit the drawers perfectly). You can read about it at http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,110,43466

Lee Valley have a lot of very interesting, high-quality products, especially if you are into woodworking or gardening (and no, I do not have a connection with them other than that they have collected a lot of my money over the years). They have stores in Canada and sell online through locations in Canada and the US.

[sailingdog]

Killarney-

How sticky is the back side of the tape, and how strong is it?? This stuff might be a good solution for making sail slugs slide up and down a mast more easily.

[killarney_sailor]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Killarney-

How sticky is the back side of the tape, and how strong is it?? This stuff might be a good solution for making sail slugs slide up and down a mast more easily.

I think you could try it and see. The tape is quite substantial but I have no idea how it would stand up to UV. The adhesive seems pretty sticky but I have only used it indoors and a predictable, back and forth, movement between surfaces. It certainly does reduce friction a great deal so if it could stand up to being used like this it would be good. It is not cheap, although you could cut each strip into three to go on the inside of the mast slot.

[sailingdog]

KS-

Can you post a link to where you got the tape???

[TxLnghrn]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

KS-

Can you post a link to where you got the tape???

Link in the original post has a shopping cart. Thinking of ordering some for myself. Thanks for the idea KS

Michael

[killarney_sailor]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

KS-

Can you post a link to where you got the tape???

There is a link in the original message. If you are ordering from the US they have an office in upstate NY

[14432]

FYI - Annapolis Performance Sailing www.apsltd.com has this tape (not as cheap) and a couple of other options - including a teflon tape with UV resistance

[sailingdog]

It looks like a good choice of material to apply to the mast to help reduce friction with sail slides.

[christyleigh]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

It looks like a good choice of material to apply to the mast to help reduce friction with sail slides.

..... Until a couple years from now when possibly some of it detaches itself, breaks, still has enough sticky on it to re-attach itself to a slug or sail or blocks the track .... whatever..... etc...... No Thanks. Yes - worst case scenario - but that's what we plan for.
I'll stick to McLube Sailkote DRY Lube which makes my main drop like a stone and raise without a winch. That stuff is so slippery the over-spray when I did my main slugs (and the slot as far as I could get by standing on my boom) this spring that my fingers were so slippery I could barely hang on to the last few slugs to spray it on

[sailingdog]

Such a pessimist...

I agree that McLube SailKote is good stuff...