Boats 100 Feet

The Antal HS Guide System is designed for boats with full batten mainsails that experience high loads and compression-loading on the mainsail luff. The system’s aluminium sliders contain HS composite fibre inserts that run on aluminium track mounted on the mast. HS composite fibre is a new material that is durable over long periods of use and offers extremely low friction coefficients. The material is made from special resins strengthened with fibre and is self lubricating.

The HS Guide System provides the following advantages: The low friction properties of the HS composite fibre allows the cars to be shorter than standard ball-bearing car systems, thereby reducing the stacking height at the mast when the sail is down; The lower cars can easily be removed from the track when the sail is reefed, thereby keeping the tack low to the boom; Minimum friction under load; Less maintenance than ball bearing car systems; Cars can easily be removed and re-installed on the track whenever the mainsail is changed.

Each batten end fitting is attached to a slider with a triaxial joint to ensure that the batten can freely orient itself under all points of sail. At least one simple slider should be attached to the sail with nylon webbing between two battens. A headboard is attached to the sail with webbing and is secured to the slider(double or triple) with a clevis pin which allows the headboard to pivot and to be removed.