Practical Sailorvideo
How to Clean Your Sail Track
27 July 2024 · 8 min · 20K views · Canada
What this video covers
A sailor named Mark demonstrates a DIY sail track cleaning tool built from two sail slides, several zip ties, and a 3M Scotch-Brite scouring pad cut to track width. The rig attaches to the halyard with a retrieval line (mouse line) at the bottom, letting the pad be worked up and down the mast track in a flossing motion. Mark's immediate problem: a new mainsail delivered with oversized, wrong-pattern sail slides that jammed the track, forcing him to use a winch to hoist past the halfway point and wrestle the sail down in any breeze. Because the sailmaker is in the US and Mark is in Canada, shipping the sail back would cost two to three months of sailing season; the sailmaker agreed to send a replacement slide kit with webbing and a sewing kit instead. After scrubbing the track, Mark makes a final pass with the pad soaked in WD Dry Lube, running it up and down two or three times. Result: the sail hoisted by hand in light wind with no binding. Host Tim adds his own method — a drop of blue Dawn dish soap on each slide at the start of the season — noting it lubricates and self-cleans in rain.
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