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The main's bolt rope is sewn in place at the tack and head for the first 20-25 cm or so.? In between these, it's loose.? It gets jammed while hoisting the sail.? It seems like maybe the rope and the sail are of different lengths.? Once hoisted, the sail is baggy near the luff.? Is the bolt rope overstretched?? Can this be fixed?
Thanks

Halden

Thanks, Gary,
I ended up searching the internet on this topic and found something!? A couple articles said that the bolt rope actually shrinks!? That would be quite consistent with my observation of the sail being baggy.? I followed one suggestion which was to remove the stitches at the tack and let the rope go up in the sleeve next time I hoist it.? See how far it goes up and then stitch it in that position.? When I stretched out the sail on the ground, the bolt rope went in 14 inches!
Today I got the boat out on the water for the first time in ~2 years.? It was a bit difficult to get the head of the sail into the mast's groove because there was no bolt rope!? It turns out I had removed stitches at the wrong end.? :-( I was able to get the dropped bolt rope into the slot and hoist the sail.? Fortunately, winds were light and the sail didn't flap around at the top.? Even better, the sail had lost its old, baggy appearance!
So, I now plan to sew the bolt rope end in place and hopefully find a scrap to install for the top of the luff.
Will the gap between the top of the bolt rope and the short scrap I install become a weak point in the sail and cause the sailcloth to tear?
Halden

I remedied my error: unstitched the bolt rope from the bottom and stitched it in at the top using dental floss.? It hoists better now. and looks great.? The bolt rope now ends about 16 inches from the bottom of the tack.? So far, this hasn't been a problem; there's only a small amount of sail slipping out of the mast's groove at the bottom.? Maybe that'll be different if I get stronger wind.
Today, N16 sailed in salt water for the first time in the current millennium.? I trained a new helmsman whose little brother managed the jibsheet.
Halden

If you have trouble with the bottom moving away from the mast in higher winds, you can use a strop around the mast to both pull down and towards the mast. I can’t find a picture of it, but we used to just use a loop that would go from the boom up through the eye in the tack, around the mast, through again, and down to the mast again. You can even use that loop luggage tagged around the mast, then down to the boom. The down tension is thus converted to some tension holding the tack close to the mast.

Anton