Skip to main content

ECA Logo Version 11 

Slideshow
Header Slideshow
Add Me To Your Mailing List

Ensign Sailing Forum

Baggy mainsail
John Crawford-Gallag

New guy question:


Can this much extra sail be fixed with adjustments, or is it just blown out? The luff and foot are both pulled tight.


thanks!

Zeke Durica
You might try taking it to a sailmaker and have a little alteration done in the spots that need it. 

Zeke

Bud Brown
John...

We welcome your questions!

The point to which the outhaul is being pulled may quite possibly be too close to the tack or the main's foot may be too long. Short booms are common on 60 year old boats due to occasional 'cleaning up' of the gooseneck and the boom's outboard end. Electrolysis (the usual reason why cleaning up the ends of the boom is necessary) between stainless and aluminum can be pretty much eliminated by using a good anti-seizing product, such as Ultra Tef-Gel. 

Ensign sails have definitely been built with a shelf foot like that in the past, but it should be able to be pulled tighter than that.

As far as the rest of the sail, it is hard to evaluate until it has a little wind in it.

Higher tension on the outhaul r controls the fullness in the foot, higher tension on the forward lowers reduces fullness in the main's middle and higher tension on the backstay reduces fullness in the top. Bending the mast at the spreaders pulls the luff curve out of the main sail. You will know you have reached the limit when diagonal overbend wrinkles appear, emanating from the spreaders down to the clew on the main.

Measure your boom. You should have at least 11' 1-1/2" from the aft edge of the mast to the outhaul.

Hope this helps!!

Bud Brown

ECA Commodore

James Knape
 I agree with everything Buddy  said.  I have one of those short boomed Ensigns and so does a friend. Neither would pull the sail far enough aft with the out haul. To solve the problem we put new small diameter sheaves in as far aft on the boom as possible. In my friends case we hack sawed a slot in the boom casting and drilled an axle hole in it and installed a 1 inch diameter sheave. In my boom I was able to install the smallest thru deck block Harken makes.  Both are set up with an multi part outhaul tackle installed inside the boom. In both cases we got rid of any shackles and tie the outhaul line with a small knot to take up as little space as possible. Instead of the original wire we use 1/8 inch dyneema line. Perhaps deleting just the shackle if there is one is good enough, should be the first step anyways


Zeke Durica
I agree with both Buddy and Jim also. 
One of the problems I find with this Forum is that a simple question to one is not always that simple. 
Your photos were great for the main but as Buddy said it could be more than meets the eye in the photo to begin with.

Zeke


Return to Forum
Sponsor Number URL address
Sponsor 1 https://www.quantumsails.com/en/default
Sponsor 2 http://www.triadtrailers.com/
Sponsor 3 http://www.ussailing.org
Sponsor 4 http://www.northsails.com
Sponsor 5 http://www.spectrumphotofg.com
Sponsor 6 http://www.defender.com
Sponsor 7 http://www.ensignspars.com
Sponsor 9 http://www.patterson-marine.com
Sponsor 10 https://stores.coralreefsailing.com/ensign_class/shop/home
Sponsor 11 https://zbloksun.com/

ENSIGN CLASS Sponsors