The main is near 2yr old and starting to develop a hooked leech in the top half of the sail now the material is loosening up a bit, there's a hollow cut in up there. I've tried all sorts of adjustments, top up boom a bit & slack of gaff, tightened gaff lashing mid length and loosen peak lashing, replaced luff lashing with hoops to maintain constant luff shape. The leech line is free. I propose to unpick the leech line pocket/ hem and test sail and if that doesn't open the leech up I will open the broad seam. Am I barking up the right tree ?

You could unpick and resew the leech tape would clean it up and make it more aesthetic.
sometimes the stretch/shrinkage rate is different between the base cloth and the tape. Battens would solve it as well.
That amount of hook is not really performance affecting. A little hook is better than a flapping leech.

r13 said..
The first (top) photo is the leech.

And the second photo is of him taking the first photo

Thanks for the replies all . R13, loose change got the sequence, Galatea I'm happy you chimed in thanks, I will keep the battens in mind, I will unpick the leech tape 1st, it proably doesn't represent much of the sail power up there in the gaff area, but a fat boat with stumpy mast needs all the help it can get and it bugs the crap out me seeing a sail cupped like that !

You will probably always have a hooked leech - there is a doubling of the strength on the overlapped tabling on the leech. It will not stretch as much as the part of the leech next to it - so under load it will cup - unless you put battens in it. If you use a hard racing dacron, that is new, with lots of filler then maybe you would not have cupping for a little while, but I am guessing the cloth has less filling that a racing dacron and is nicer to work. So it stretches a bit. You can't get all the characteristics you want.

i would go with battens always makes a bad sail good

I am with Ramona o this one.
Would like to see how the sail sets with a bit of wind in it.

gary