On my relatively recent I made up a similar plate to the one Brian shows in the mods section. The only difference is that I used two aluminium [aluminum ] bolts and two rivnuts into the mast. Brian was right, using an old bit of ali. it only took about half an hour to construct and seems to work a treat, though I've not had it on the water in a force 8 yet.
By the way Restless, do you leave your henweigh ashore during the season or pack it away in the bilge in case of need during a trip? I haven't made up my mind which is best.
The reason why I am looking at this is because we are working on a stack pack and the diffrence in height is very significant, about 10 inches higher if we do not solve the mast gate gap. For those of you wih a Doyle stack pack or the sailrite kit, how high is the pack at the mast?
By my calculations is going to be about 24 inches versus 14 if doing something like what restless or Summer did. Would the high differential affect performance?
I currently have lazy jacks that will be adapted for the pack.
I noticed you said you talked to BWY's and someone there said they don't make the slug gate anymore.
Call them back and talk to Gayle, I think. I just ordered mine, for $20 bucks, and it arrived yesterday. I haven't installed it yet, but it looks to be machined nicely, with a smooth, rounded lip at the outer edge that fits into the slot perfectly, and comes with two screws that go into the mast. It looks simple enough.
It's Item #3454-1M3, and is called the "MAST, GATE COVER" in their product catalog.
I noticed you said you talked to BWY's and someone there said they don't make the slug gate anymore.
Call them back and talk to Gayle, I think. I just ordered mine, for $20 bucks, and it arrived yesterday. I haven't installed it yet, but it looks to be machined nicely, with a smooth, rounded lip at the outer edge that fits into the slot perfectly, and comes with two screws that go into the mast. It looks simple enough.
It's Item #3454-1M3, and is called the "MAST, GATE COVER" in their product catalog.
On April 2012, Sea Wind posted that BWY (Blue Water Yachts) told him that they no longer made the "MastGates".
BWY never made The "MastGates", but purchased them from MastGates.com (patent pending).
This had to be addressed because of the false report from BWY ended up being posted here, which causes harm and mis- information to solve an age old sailing problem.
I believe that the part that BWY sells (3454-1M3) is not the same as your MastGate, Tom. They call it a mast gate cover and the opening in the mast slot for the sail slugs, or bolt rope is often referred to generically as the mast gate (two words). I will try and have someone from BWY clarify in this thread.
I drilled and taped a hole in the mast groove above the slot and screwed in the appropriate bolt/washer. I keep a small supply of bolts handy to satisfy Davy Jones appetite for SS fasteners.
There seems to be some confusion about the "mast gate" issue, compounded some by the reply from Tom Luque, the owner of the patent for the internal "snap gate" and the owner of the web site mastgates.com. Mast gate is a generic term which in different uses has described both the notch in the mast itself or the cover for the notch. At BWY we have offered several different gate cover options. We do stock and offer the "Snap Gate" (or Internal gate) from mastgates.com, but only for the older style mast (26X and previous), and only on those that have a notched sail feed slot, not the original "spread" feed slot that Mac did on those masts. If you have an old style mast with a notch (as are all of our BWY replacement masts) the snap gate works really well and is the slickest possible option. It is possible to finess the spread shut and cut a notch, but it's not all that easy if you aren't fairly handy. We no longer offer this product for either version of the 26M mast. The mast gate we sell for the 2007 and newer 26M masts, which came from the factory with a notch (part #3454-1M3) is a solid, machined, anodized aluminum cover that screws on over the notch in the mast. Due to the very different shape of the sail feed track in both versions of the 26M mast, we feel this is a superior option to either of the gate offerings from mastgates.com. In our experience their non fixed external flip open gate often flips open unexpectedly, if the sail slides get pulled to the Port side, they simply lever it up off the lip of the mast, letting the slides fall out. The mastgates fixed external gate works fine, but has loose removable parts that can be easily dropped and lost while you are handling them, while ours has no loose parts (you simply loosen the screws, not remove them) and does the same job a lot cheaper.
Clears up confusion nicely - thanks. In your discussion you do not say - do you offer a solution for the earlier 2003-2006 M mast with the long bolt rope slot?
BTW, I bought Tom’s external mast gate and it works great. It allowed me to build a much lower Sail Pack and gives the boat a sleeker look. No need to undo, store and reattach the mainsail cover and deal with lazyjacks. All I have to do now is unzip and zip the top of the pack.
I have the newer mast with the long open slot and I went with the recommendation in the last mast gate thread. I bashed the slot closed with a hammer just leaving enough open near the bottom to put the slugs in. I then just put a sai tie around the mast to stop it falling out. Works great
Can you post pictures of your Mast Gate. The original MacX has slots on both side of mast for the sail slugs. BWY doesn't sell the Mast Gate for this setup and one needs to cut out a slot in mast for the Snap Gate/ internal gate system.
All the new replacement masts thru BWY for both Mac.X and M have the one side slot for there Part # 3454-1M3 .
This will not work for the MacX original Mast.
So my question is what system did you use?
Dave
Sea Wind wrote:BTW, I bought Tom’s external mast gate and it works great. It allowed me to build a much lower Sail Pack and gives the boat a sleeker look. No need to undo, store and reattach the mainsail cover and deal with lazyjacks. All I have to do now is unzip and zip the top of the pack.
Pedro
There is a simple, inexpensive way to keep the slugs from falling out. It goes in the track, just above the "slot". And if you need to get the sail out fast, it removes quickly.
I made up a similar plate to the one Brian shows in the mods section. The only difference is that I used two aluminium [aluminum 
] bolts and two rivnuts into the mast. Brian was right, using an old bit of ali. it only took about half an hour to construct and seems to work a treat, though I've not had it on the water in a force 8 yet.
just leaving enough open near the bottom to put the slugs in. I then just put a sai tie around the mast to stop it falling out. Works great 