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choco said..
Have you tried feeding the mast through the cams? unlike modern sails where the mast lays on top of the battens from memory the older race sails the mast feeds through the cams
What he said. Other than Ezzy and Ezzy influenced Norths back then (that I'm aware off), generally sails of that vintage had cam shapes (wrapped more around the mast than modern cams) and luff sleeves too tight to pop on the cams after threading the mast. The mast had to be threaded through the cams which put a lot of strain on the batten tips. Also, pull the top cam down while keeping the luff sleeve tight and then the next, etc or you risk the top cams popping off before you get adequate downhaul tension to keep them on. It was an absolute PITA to have the top cam pop off because rethreading the whole thing was the only way to sort it. I'm having PTSD right now reliving rigging a NP 9.5 in the hot sun and having the redo the whole thing while sweating in the heat because the top cam twisted off before I could put on downhaul.