Hoisting the mainsail on our friends Ketch rigged Oyster is still a pleasure, even in my advanced years, as the fully battened main/mast has been fitted with Harken track and ball bearing cars. When we flew out two weeks ago I decided that in my luggage I would pack a tube of McLube One Drop ball bearing lubricant and conditioner as the skipper ALWAYS gets me to hoist the main! Because I have a suspicious mind I thought I would do a ‘before and after’ comparison. Peter's mainsail is full battened so there is a lot of compression from the battens onto the mast track. Before applying McLube One Drop I could hoist the sail ½ way by hand (jumping the halyard) at the mast. After an application of One Drop I was able to hoist it three quarters of a way up before resorting to the winch which is located on the mast, avid readers please note I am not 17 stone, at the start of the two weeks I was just under 12 stone (not saying what I weighed in after the two weeks were up!) What was also encouraging was that when hoisting the remainder of the sail I did not have to change down to the lower speed on the winch.
The mizzen sail is, of course, a lot smaller and as the second image shows is fitted with conventional flat slides which as you know do create quite a lot of friction. If I had thought ahead I could have made the task of hoisting this sail easier by remembering to pack some McLube Sailcoat dry lubricant, great for this and other uses around the boat like squeaking hatch hinges.