On an outing in strong winds the other week, chatting with Andy D and distracted by an all female crew on a very fast catamaran my BR20 gybed quite violently and took seven sail slides (A017) as hostage.
Living in the Midlands with no sail lofts nearby i decided to try and replace the slides myself.
The slides which attach to cringles were very easy to replace as you can use the plastic/nylon shackles
Sail Shackles Small Snap-In Anti Jamming Plastic (A023) Each
SKU: A023
The slides which attach to the sail where the battens are fitted is the main challenge as the moulding on the sail has a slot to accommodate webbing, the webbing is initially sewn onto the slide and after two wraps around the batten moulding and through the slide it is then stitched through the luff rope and the webbing and also in the gap between the luff rope and the sail slide to firmly secure the webbing and slide.
I ordered one of those “handy stitching tools” as per a previous post advice, without it the job would have been impossible I think.
One thought did come to mind as I’m sure no doubt I will get breakages again on the slides which require stitching, could I lash the slides with several turns of a good quality UV resistant cord and make it off like we do on the mast shrouds. This would be much quicker and also potentially stop damage to the luff rope when your force the stitching needle through several times when stitching the webbing.