Hey all,

After a bit of advice to see if anyone has done this before but also a good bit of info!!

I brought a great condition 2nd hand main for my Etchells. It is beautiful and crisp and looks fantastic on the ground, however....
When I hoisted it I found it had heaps of extra sail cloth up the luff. It meant to get the luff creases out and get the draft anywhere near where it should be I had to pull massive amounts of cunningham on.
Now I thought it was because I wasn't getting enough mast bend, even though I was pulling a bucket load of backstay on (the backstay has a 12:1 purchase) I would get a nice tight forestay but still the main had terrible bags up the luff.

I have played with lots of stuff then I was googling last night and found that over time the dacron sail stretches and the 3-strand poly bolt rope shrinks. As the bolt rope is sewn top and bottom the stretch and shrinking causes all the sail to bunch up.

My plan this weekend is to unpick the bolt rope at the tack, hoist the main and then pull down the cunningham so the bolt rope disappears up the sail, then drop the sail and re-sew the bolt rope.
After some research i found this is a common thing and can also be done on older dacron headsails with hanks and a boltrope that seem to need a tonne of halyard to get the scallops out between the hanks.

Will take before and after pics and post them later!!!