Bagging sails for Winter storage

[Al - s/v Persephone]

Once again, Persephone has returned to "the Land of the Dead" (boatyard) until Spring.As usual, I've taken down and bagged my sails, but I'm wondering why.When bent-on, my all-full-batten mainsail flakes quite nicely between lazy-jack lines and gets stored in a zipper-on-top type of sail cover that acts like a poor-man's StackPack. The cover is made of SunBrella and completely covers the well-flaked sail. My jib is roller-furling and has a good SunBrella edge to wrap around it.Since I always add 4-or-5 extra wraps of the sheets on the jib, I've comfortably left both sails on in local storms that registered 50kt gusts in our marina. (The bimini comes down beforehand, however.)When unbent and bagged, both sails have a lot of folds in them. When bent-on and fulred, they don't. (Also, single-handed folding and bagging a 490sq-ft mainsail in even the slightest breeze is a %$#$&^@.)My sail locker gets as cold as the rest of the boat (below freezing both day and night during Jan-Feb, but seldom ever below 10F).Since they are protected from sunlight either bent-on and furled, or when bagged, why am I folding them, rather than leaving them smoothly furled and covered?In either case, they would be subjected to absolutely no forces trying to move the fabric (8.8oz Type 52 Dacron) around when cold/brittle.Against what hazard am I protecting them, at the cost of all those folds? Or am I just falling into a bad habit because "everyone else does it?"Could I actually be reducing the life of the sails by "protecting" them this way?

 

[Warren Milberg]

These are good questions...

... to bag or not? I see a lot of mains/headsails left on boats at my boatyard, yet I, too, take my sails down and bag them at the end of the season. To me, it's an opportunity to lay the sail out on the grass and take a hard look at the seams, luff and leach tapes that I don't see very closely very often, particularly on the headsail. I look for wear spots from spreaders and chafe from the lifelines or shrouds. I also make a decision at that time as to whether professional repairs or cleaning are needed. If so, off they go to the loft for the winter. If not, they come home with me and get stored in a dry, warmish basement (much to the delight of my wife....). My basement is "improved" over the winter by odors of boat stuff stored there. Other family members have other opinions, however.... Yet every once in a while, I see a headsail on a boat on the hard that is coming loose and may be damaged or destroyed. I always notify the yard and hope they contact the owner in time. In the end, it is worth the effort for me to take the sails down and take a hard look at how they are doing -- and to store them in a secure place where I know they'll be ready for service next spring -- which is really not that far away (I hope).

 

[s sauer]

Adjacent Boats?

Most Marina's attach a little note to your winter storage bill letting you know what they are responsible for (nothing); and your insurance responsibility (everything else)etc. Suppose the top of your roller furler opens up/ rips open in a storm and the ensuing flagg waving tips your vessel off its jack stands; the domino effect takes out a couple more boats?At the least you are going to have UV degradation to the stitching on the sunbrella leach cover and the stitching on your mainsail cover.I'll bet there are 8-10 boats in my area of the marina that still have their sails on , and their Bimininis and dodgers up like they're ready to launch tommorrow. Sometimes owners wait till the boat is hauled to come back to take off the sails and canvas work - seems that's much harder and more risky when the boat is on jack stands.

 

[Bob V]

headsail insurance

I have my boat up on the hard for a bottom paint right now in windy Port Townsend. I would normally take the headsail off when the boat is up on stands for fear of the dreaded domino effect if it opens in a yard. The shop foreman showed me a neat trick for ensuring that the jib stays rolled in the most intense winds. Take your spinnaker halyard or main halyard and wrap it around the jib from top to bottom opposite to the direction that the sail is wrapped by swinging the halyard as you stand at the bow pulpit. When you get close to the bottom of the sail you can attach the shackle to a bungee wrapped around the anchor roller. There is no way that is going to open up. We had 63 mph gusts last week to test it and it held fast. Five other boats at the marina lost their headsails and one of them took the radar off the mast as it blew out.