replacement bolt rope

We had problems with out plastic tube as well, but when we took our sail to Schurr sails in Pensacola to fix the tear (which as it turns out was due to a sudden break in the outhaul line, not necessarily sheeting) he noticed that the tube was cracked in a few spots. He fixed the areas somehow without replacing the whole bolt rope. Replacing the whole bolt rope would be pricey and depending on how bad yours is, is probably not necessary. The whole repair, including the tear, came out to 125.

Halsey-UK has done most of my work including the bolt rope on my 6.0. They are located in Mystic, CT their website is www.ukhalsey.com
Other sail makers i'd reccomend but haven't had much experience with are Farrar sails in New London, CT or North Sails in Portsmouth, RI.
Not sure about anywhere in Northern New England though, i'd reccomend staying with lofts that have experience in catamarans or at least modern one designs.

there is no reason it should take a long time or that you should have to wait until June. Fixing the bolt rope shouldn't take long and it isn't like it is a structural component of the sail, it just holds the sail in the luff track... the fabric of the luff does all the work when you torque the downhaul (I made this realization when I talked with Schurr)

Thanks for the response, after speaking with Bill Vinning I talked to Peter Cogan and he is going to look both. Halsey just said that they are to busy and really didn't want to deal with it, beside I beleive they are building my new trimaran sails. Halsey also sent them to Peter at no cost to me so I am happy with their service. Thanks for the responses. I also figuired that the hard plastic boltrope was from the era of no halyards and will replace it with a 1/4" bolt rope. Should make things a bit easier in the end.

Jon

The luff rope is a structural part of most beachcat sails I have seen. Unless the bolt rope is there to take downhaul loads, you will need some really heavy duty luff reinforcement. Probably some special 10.000 denier spectra tape or similar.
What usually happens is that the cloth in the luff stretches until a certain point when downhaul is applied. From that point on, the luff rope will take all additional load from the downhaul when you increase tension. This can vary between sailmakers of course, but I would be leery of a beachcat sail buildt in a different manner considering our 16:1 downhaul loads. The downhaul loads, bending our masts, are huge.
If the luff rope did not take any structural loads, what would the point be in installing the luff rope in such a manner that you have to apply at least some downhaul before the sail sets well?

I am not a pro tough, so if anybody know better, please enlighten me.

Replacing a luff rope is not much work at all. I am pretty certain I would need just an hour or two at home. A professional sailmaker in his workshop should be able to do it faster. It is a simple and quick process, but you need some beachcat experience to get the amount of

pre-tension

in the luff rope right when you sew the rope to the sail at the foot.

What you say makes sense and I know you have the experience, but then why would our original Bimare sails (I assume that the original poster's 18HT sail he is referring to is the original Bimare sail) only have a hollow plastic tube for the luff rope then?

Lots of noise printed here with little real knowledge of Italian Bimare boats: The bolt tube just keeps the sail in the track. I have replaced the tube in several Bimare A-cat sails that needed attention after several years of hard use.
The plastic tube is polyethylene, and the Bimare A-cats with Riba mast need a 5/16 inch tube (1/16 inch wall) available from any US scientific supply house (Fisher). (I used the same size polypropylene tubing for the last repair because it is a bit harder). You get 100 feet for $40 and need just 30 feet.
1. Cut the sewn threads that hold the crushed tube in place and pull it out of the sleeve.
2. Push 2 feet of line up inside the lower 2 feet of new tubing, and maybe a piece at the top, sew it in as before-- by hand.
3. Insert tubing from the bottom of the sail, sew in place at the top, then stretch to match, and sew at the bottom. Done. Do not even need to take the batten cap ends off
4. Do NOT buy metric sizes because the wall thickness is 1 mm which is too thin. It will crush.
5. 1/4 inch is too small and weak, and 3/8 inch tubing is probably too fat for your Riba mast, so check the stock tube.

This sail was a BIZZ Sail, and had seen very little use as the original users had a SMyth sail that they were using. Talking with Peter Cogan he felt that it had the hard plastic luff to help raise the sail without the use of a halyard, not to help with the downhall.

Jon

Some clever reinforcement in the luff area would do the trick. It's just a matter of making it strong enough. But now you have me wondering.. I have not buildt that many sails so there is a lot of room for learning (and wrong opinions). I tried finding some good photos of the Bim18HT main, but none came up.
Hopefully somebody have the correct answers to share.

I take it the Bim18HT dont have a halyard for the main, since you use the plastic tube? If you have a halyard, a luff rope should be just as good. Especially so since the luff probably already is strong enough to handle all downhaul loads. If you dont have a halyard, I suppose you need the plastic tube to raise the main. Unless the tube can be repaired (what plastic material would crack and then permit repairs?), it sounds like it have to be replaced. Again, replacing a luff rope is not a large job, I dont see why using a plastic tube instead of the rope should make it harder?

Dave, did I tell you about the mosquitoes that get in our plane in Bombay? We need some of those air curtains, Quick!

We need a halyard to raise the sail. At least I do. I can't imagine not needing one with the length of the mast