main sail catches topping lift?

[Krill]

My top batten on full sail catches the topping lift ever so slightly when tacking and i cant work out how to stop this without lowering the sail slightly... im confused? is it normal?

its a Bav 30

boat was lifted out recently and they have messed about with my lines as i can't remember it doing this or maybe im going mad?

[Ricd]

Do you let the topping lift off slack when sail is up?  Some boats use a tension device ( a stiff plastic or metal strip I think) at top of mast that pulls the slackened t/lift further aft and up when sail hoisted.

[Yngmar]

Just leave the topping lift slack, shouldn't cause a problem if you have a rodkicker with a gas spring - it'll keep the boom from dropping too far.

I've seen backstay flickers that lift the backstay clear similar to what Ricd describes, but not seen them used on topping lifts - although it's certainly possible to do that.

[Krill]

Just leave the topping lift slack, shouldn't cause a problem if you have a rodkicker with a gas spring - it'll keep the boom from dropping too far.

I've seen backstay flickers that lift the backstay clear similar to what Ken describes, but not seen them used on topping lifts - although it's certainly possible to do that.

bit of a pain as topping lift is up on the mast, it only catches when going through a tack, once the batten is set and sail on the other side its fine, but of course over time that's going to wear the rope in the same place!

its as far aft of the boom as possible not sure about further up though

short of having it loose so the "rubbing" effect is less im not sure what to do, anyone else have a bav 30 with the same thing?

[Ricd]

You need to let the topping lift off when the sail is up otherwise the boom will be too high making the sail too full. If it is a pain and you have a rid kicker, leave it slack permanently and let the rod kicker support eh boom when the sail is down.

[Kibo]

If you don't want to loosen the topping lift as described by others then have the main recut to lose some of the roach and shorten the top batten a few cms.

[dawntreader]

I had the same problem and cured it by trimming all of my baton's lengths to the exact size of the pockets making sure the cut was angled to match the sail edge. I also marked the batons with up/down/left/right arrows to make sure they go back the right way after they are removed for cleaning/servicing. The easy way to do this is to push the baton fully home and pencil along the edge aligned with the sail angle.

[Krill]

thanks all,

food for thought, i will try just slackening the topping lift see what happens, im sure it was set up perfectly so it didn't catch with the sail up yet held the boom in place as a reasonable level while the sail was down - just need to find that balance again i guess.

failing that ill trim the top batten

[Ricd]

Just remember that if the T/Lift is still on when the sail is set, the kicker will not work either as it will tension the t/lift rather than the leach of the sail.