San Juan 21 Class Association

My mainsail has slugs on the luff. I want to be able to lower the main so that all of the slugs are stacked up tight against the top of the boom. To do this, the slugs must go below the cutout in the mast track. I made a gate from 0.100 aluminum and found a knob with a threaded rod attached at the hardware store. Drilled and tapped mast. Works well. Now able to get my mainsail cover on! Here are some pix:
Gate open:


Gate closed:


Sail track with gate closed:

Very nice. i have tried to do this unsuccessfully. any tips you can share around shaping the metal? Do you have a slide stop under the boom?

Sorry for the delay in replying, had family over for weekend...

To bend this, I started with a strip of metal 4" wide by 14" long. (My mast boltrope opening is 4" long.) The mast is a "Kenyon Marine al spar", the profile is "D". In cross section, this is an ellipse 2-1/4 x 3-3/4. I made a paper pattern of the cross section from a CAD drawing, but it could also be made using the loop of string and 2 nails method. I bent the strip of aluminum to about 1/3 of the profile outline just by pushing down on the ends of the strip, using a variety of tubular objects with varying radiuses as mandrels in order to get the elliptical curve. After I had the curve right, I was able to jig saw and file to the shape shown in the pictures. Both ends of the original strip were cut off, as they functioned mostly as handles while bending the curve into the center section.

HTH, George

Edit to add: no sail stop, slugs slide down to gooseneck, gooseneck slides down to downhaul cleat.