MainSail slide replacement

[Rockinar]

Need to replace the slugs/slides on my mainsail. Never done it before. Research tells me I have 3 shackle option to attach the sides to the sail..

Metal
Plastic
Nylon webbing


Boat is Island Packet 29. 15,000 pounds loaded.

I dont know if plastic is for small boats or what bigger boats. Boat currently has nylon webbing. In my mind I envision nylon webbing being the strongest, but dont that.

Opinions?

[Tsuru]

I hand stitched slides with nylon webbing on our Catalina 36. They worked out fine and are still going strong. I wouldn't hesitate to that way with your boat.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Tsuru

I hand stitched slides with nylon webbing on our Catalina 36. They worked out fine and are still going strong. I wouldn't hesitate to that way with your boat.

We've used the webbing to attach sail slides since roughly 1983. Works fine, never had a failure. Have had plastic shackles fail.

It's not hard to do a tidy job of it. You want a good sail needle, good twine, and a sailor's palm will make it easier.

Ann

[Rockinar]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

We've used the webbing to attach sail slides since roughly 1983. Works fine, never had a failure. Have had plastic shackles fail.

It's not hard to do a tidy job of it. You want a good sail needle, good twine, and a sailor's palm will make it easier.

Ann

I envision plastic ones snapping with an accidental jibe too.

[thomm225]

The plastic sail slides that came on my first new main in 2012 did great. (sailing in winds as high as 35 knots with an accidental downwind gybe on that big wind day)

The plastic sail slides on my 2023 new main were actually a tad small so I took a few off my old main and put them on the new.

None have failed.

The slides on the old main have a little plastic screw that holds each of them closed whereas the ones on the new main are snap closed.

Two of the plastic slides are sewn on the new main.

I have snap on plastic sail slides on my webbing ladder also.

[ohdrinkboy]

I've used webbing and plastic slides on my 22 footer. Not a hard job, just time consuming to stitch.