Mainsail Crease

[Told You So!]

I have a 34 ft sailboat with furling mainsail. There is a crease in the sail starting at the bottom of the luff near the tack, going toward the leech & up a couple of feet from the clew. It's there, no matter how strong or light the wind & on every point of sail. Any thoughts?

[bewitched]

you picture didn't load properly.

Really need to see the sail to see what's going on

[SaucySailoress]

Trying to understand what you mean. Do you mean it starts at the tack and runs to the clew in a gentle arch?

Try easing your outhaul...?

[daddle]

Either the outhaul is too tight, but it doesn't sound like that, or the sail is just sewn wrong.

If you can't fix it it is called a "speed wrinkle".

[Vasco]

It might be because the sail has been furled improperly for a long time.

[SaucySailoress]

Oh - do you mean a crease that appears every time because of bad sail setting or do you mean a crease because something's been flattened too long - like your jeans? If it's the former, just play around with your strings till it's gone. If it's the latter, get your maid to iron it out.

[Bash]

the sail was furled under too much pressure, which formed the crease, and then allowed to sit, which made the crease permanent. not an uncommon problem.

solutions?

[sarafina]

hair dryer to warm the crease and relax it?

[eyschulman]

Since the rollerfurling main is designed and functions foremost to steady the boat and to furl up fast so you can turn the motor on I would not lose too much sleep over a crease the poor shape of the sail and smaller size per mast hight is much more significant(you got it I dont like Rf mains) unless they are on a motorsailor where they fit the design purpose

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by eyschulman

Since the rollerfurling main is designed and functions foremost to steady the boat and to furl up fast so you can turn the motor on I

Hmm, well everyone is entitled to there own opinion, mine is slightly different

With a 1980s masthead rig and RF main, the real power comes from the Genoa at 135%, so the main sail is to balance the Genoa. The main is smaller but not by much. Nor would changing to slab reefing gain us much. Perhaps a bit in F2-3 but by the time we are up to the top end of F3 or F4 we have reached hull speed and at the top end of F4 looking to reef. So only a narrow band were the extra roach would be an advantage. We like the easy of RF, the sail sets well and does what it says on the tin

Okay nuff of the thread drift, shame we can't see the photo of the crease, perhaps the OP would try to upload the photo again.

Pete