In mast furling Sail UV Damage

[Tjurd]

Hi all,

A year ago we bought a 2009 Jeanneau SO 42i freshwater boat. In new almost new condition.

Sail cloth is also in my opinion in very good shape except for the part that is exposed to the little sun we get here in nothern europe. We used the boat 5 weeks back to back this summer with heavy winds. THe sail developed a bunch of small tears where it has UV damage

Case:
Seldon in mast furling sail

The sail is UV damaged from top to bottom where the sail is exposed to elements due to the gap in the mast (where the sail rolls into)

Question:
1. Is this sail repairable, or better to have a new one made?
2. Is there a way to prevent UV damage? (sunbrella?)
3. Can we have a sailmaker stich on a sunbrella cover? Or wil the sail get too fat to roll into the mast?

Attached a few pictures

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Tjurd,

You would need to talk to the sailmaker involved with a new sail. Said sailmaker would do all the measuring, and be able to tell you if the slot in your mast is actually wide enough all along its length to accommodate Sunbrella.

Sunbrella is bulky and heavy but does work well as UV protection. We have had a sail made one time, with a plain dacron sun strip, with the intention of replacing the strip every 3-4 yrs. That was less bulky overall, and the strip did fail and need replacement.

The leach gets a lot of stress. We had a plied leach mainsail once, but we had slab reefing not in mast furling. The plied leach held up better than plain, that was before we went to tri-radial mains. Still have slab reefing.

Ann

On Edit: The fabric looks finished to me. Generally, it is not economical to have the leach cut back into good material, as you have to rebuild the head and the clew, also, and for only a short usage time.

[barnakiel]

A good sailmaker will easily mend this sail.


Whether this makes economical sense to you or not is another matter. Also a sail mended is just that. Good to use for a time and may need to be treated with extra care.


I am surprised you got this much UV damage in Holland. I normally see this kind of damage on boats kept all year round in the Med and Caribbean.


If you are building a new sail, do give it a UV strip in same area. Your sailmaker will know exactly how to best go once you show them this one.


PS If the sail is otherwise fine, you may leave a note on any of the sh sail-for-sale boards - sometimes people from smaller boats pick up bigger sails to trim and re-use them. Better for mother nature too.


(I think Udkik had such a board in Denmark and Blocket in Sverige, probably there is a similar board in Holland too).



b.

[Tjurd]

Hi Both,

Thanks for the replies! Will get in contact with sailmaker. Gues we will go for a new mainsail.

I was also surprized that the fabrik was UV worn, i think the previous owner never took the sail off in the winter.

[Dockhead]

Tjurd, I'm very sorry to see that you've been through EXACTLY what happened to us.


I had a carbon-technora laminate mainsail which was still in perfect condition after 9 years and 30,000 miles but lost it due to the exact same UV damage which you have.


I was very sorry about this. Replacing it cost me a lot of money, and this time I had the sailmaker put a UV strip on it.


In-mast furling sails need UV strips. Duh. I don't know why my otherwise excellent sailmaker do this in the first place.

[JPA Cate]

Dockhead,

What type of film or fabric was used for the UV protection of your new mainsail? How much clearance does it have?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Dockhead,

What type of film or fabric was used for the UV protection of your new mainsail? How much clearance does it have?

Good question; I don't know. It's Sunbrella on my headsails. This is cloth, but much thinner than that.

[psk125]

Our sailmaker used a painted-on UV blocker for the leech of our r/f Genoa. Would this be an option here?

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by psk125

Our sailmaker used a painted-on UV blocker for the leech of our r/f Genoa. Would this be an option here?

I was wondering why it took so many posts for that to come up. I had a genoa with a painted UV strip. It seemed to work perfectly. I even tested the UV blocking of the paint used; it was equivalent to Sunbrella and much better than the thin films. This seems like a great application.

[JPA Cate]

@thinwater:

What kind of paint? I was feeling concerned that adherence would be a challenge with the laminates. Is this wrong??? Thanks in advance for explaining why.

Ann

[DougM]

i put a new genoa on my cat, my local north sails franchisee said hed be happy to add sunbrella but it would rough on the shape of a sail for lighter wind, and that all the cool kids these days were using paint.

he recommended hempel's hemparoof 596ME. but the Danes, as talented as they are, are not really good at north american distribution so no luck getting it.

So in the generic, is is high build elastomeric acrylic. I bought a home depot version (forget the brand). painted it on in july. holding up great, lost a little where the sail flogs the mast when tacking, but can touch it up with the other .95 gallon left over.

btw North said it is good for 3 years, then touch up or repaint.

i also found this. https://www.marineshield.co.nz/ Some new zealanders getting paint makers to custom mix an elastomeric roofing acrylic, i'd guess. Woiuld buy it if i could, some uncertainty disappears when someone has optimized it for the purpose

anyway, i;m happy so far.

[DougM]

video link on my paint job
https://youtube.com/shorts/tJ9Na0gRg...GasxmDhzoPVesv

[DougM]

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/whi...ite/1000410632

i used this with maximum black tint giving me light grey. Doesn't look bad on the black laminate (well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, i think it looks ok)

d