Fitting Out | Sail Track

I carefully marked up the mast and the gaff for fitting the sail track, like this.

The screws supplied for fixing the sail track in place were too small. I think they were #7, whereas #8 are required.

It seems that you can only buy stainless steel wood screws in quantities of 100, so that's what I did.

Here the sail track has all been screwed in place for the test installation.

The #8 screws hold it snugly in place at six inch intervals. Here they are on the mast.

Lastly here are the mast and gaff after final fitting of the sail track with clear sealant.

Each spar takes two pieces of sail track - one piece at six feet as supplied, and one at a shorter length cut to fit.

I had an afternoon of drama when I started the final fit on the mast because I installed the first length the wrong way round, meaning that the second length did not fit!

So I had to unscrew the first piece and remove all the clear sealant from the track, mast and screws. It was not an enjoyable experience, so I gave up and did the whole installation the following day when I was in a much better frame of mind ...

So that's the sail track finished.