I wasn't doing a bolt rope replacement. I was going to allow the bolt rope to shrink up inside the bolt rope cover per my sailmakers recommendation. To do this the sail maker said to check how the bolt rope was secured to the bolt rope cover. If it is stitched along the entire luff then all that stitching would need to come out. Since mine was only stitched for four or so inches near the bottom it didn't take very long to remove the stitching. After stitching is removed the bolt rope will move up what it needs to or try milking it. Mine didn't move at all so I relocked stitched it place. Had it moved up, the sailmaker said I would have needed to add a piece of line in the place of where the old rope was to provide support to the luff; keep it from tearing.