Tides marine Strongtrack

[gates_cliff]

My wife and daughter are watching the most recent episode of The Americans. I find this discussion much more fascinating!

Trying to envision how you'll incorporate a come along. I guess you could attach the anchor hook to the boom vang bale but how will The load hook attach to the track?

[tjr818]

...Trying to envision how you'll incorporate a come along. I guess you could attach the anchor hook to the boom vang bale but how will The load hook attach to the track?

Anybody have a 2" long come along I could borrow? I am thinking a C-clamp might be able to do this, if I can get it to grab onto something. Stay tuned....

[Andy Denmark]

Maybe going up a bos'ns chair, spraying silicon lube in the track on the way up and find a way to tap it down from the top, while (hopefully) lowering the chair.

Sometimes I want my boatyard back! A manlift would make this easy.....

[tjr818]

Thanks for the ideas and support. Trying to knock it down from the top would be difficult because they cut the end at a 45 degree angle to minimize interference with the halyard. They warn agains any lubricant other than soapy water, which we did use. If there had been a pin further up the track maybe a come along could work.

After all the fretting and all the lost sleep I was able to pull the track back down in a little over an hours time today. There were two problems to overcome; one was just trying to get a grip on the track and then the unexpected problem of stretch. Do you have any idea how much stretch there is in 30' of plastic
There is a 3/6" SS pin near the bottom that holds the track gate cover, it is tight against the back of the track so I could not get a good grip on the pin alone. I put the track gate cover in place and tried to pull down on the gate cover but it would rock toward the clamp and the clamp would slip off. A second bar clamp, snug but not tight, held the cover in place. Then I cranked down on the primary bar clamp, That clamp only has 1-1/4" of travel after pulling the track down the full 1-1/4" a loosened the clamp to get another bite. As I loosened the clamp the track just pulled back the whole 1-1/4". So nothing was gained. I tried again, but this time once I had taken the 1-1/4" with the clamp I just took a break to rethink and to let that pressure work on the track for awhile. That helped. After a ten minute break when I loosened the clamp for another bite the track only bounced back about 3/4". Progress . Using that strategy I was able to slowly pull the track down until the end touched to boom. This time I waited twenty minutes as I cleaned up extra tools, started putting the sail cover back on, and carried things back to the car. Now when released the clamp the track sprung back about 1/2". I do need at least 1/4" clearance to take the gate cover off and on. So, if the track doesn't spring back any more over night I think we are in good shape. I feel much better about the whole thing now.

The top of blue tape marks the starting point.

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