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07-07-2016, 18:25
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Michigan
Boat: Lagoon 380 Owners Version
Posts: 173
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Leaving mainsail exposed
I'm working on a new sail cover with a friend, but we aren't going to have it finished in time for a planned trip my family is taking this summer.
Max exposure the sail will get is a month in the Michigan sun.
My gut tells me it will be fine, but thought I'd check for second opinions here.
Leaving the sail off and going with the jib alone wouldn't be the end of the world. Weather looks like we are going to be motoring on the way there anyway.
Thoughts?
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07-07-2016, 18:35
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Lake Belton, TX, USA, Earth: 3rd rock from the Sun
Boat: Vagabond 14
Posts: 421
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Get a cheap tarp and wrap the sail, tieing the tarp with chain knots all the way down the boom.
Now you are exposing a $12 (or cheaper) tarp and a cheap rope instead of a $$$$$$ mainsail.
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07-07-2016, 20:36
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2008
Boat: 2017 Leopard 40
Posts: 2,662
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Quote:
Originally Posted by TurninTurtle
Get a cheap tarp and wrap the sail, tieing the tarp with chain knots all the way down the boom.
Now you are exposing a $12 (or cheaper) tarp and a cheap rope instead of a $$$$$$ mainsail.
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What he said
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07-07-2016, 21:29
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: sailing south
Boat: Ericson 35-2
Posts: 330
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Math is simple. A new dacron cloth has somewhere like a year, maybe two worth of life in sunlight. By leaving it uncovered for a month, you use up 5-10% of that lifetime. If a new sail is, for argument's sake, $2000, this decision costs you somewhere in the ballpark of $150.
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08-07-2016, 10:01
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Seal Cove, ME
Boat: Cheoy Lee Clipper 42 schooner
Posts: 51
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
A year in the sunlight? Really? Some of my sails are at least 17 years old, all have seen much use as we live and cruise aboard, and I'm confident they's seen far more days in the sun than 1 year. While I'd love a new main, I plan to get at least another year or two out of it before I replace it with a used sail. We're obviously not racers, nor have deep pockets, but we aren't sailing with raggedy bedsheets either.
Nonetheless, I agree with keeping your sails covered - why not do something as simple as that to extend the life of you sail? And, for a month, a tarp will do a lot of good.
JOSO, and YMMV.
__________________
Roger Noble
S/V Alchemy, Cheoy Lee Clipper 42 Schooner
Seal Cove, Maine
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08-07-2016, 10:06
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Cowichan Bay, BC (Maple Bay Marina)
Posts: 9,704
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Quote:
Originally Posted by chad.lawie
I'm working on a new sail cover with a friend, but we aren't going to have it finished in time for a planned trip my family is taking this summer. ..............
.............
Thoughts?
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My thought is for you to stay up a night or two after work and finish making the cover. You aren't precise in how long off the start of this trip is. Can you accelerate the production of the cover?
__________________
Stu Jackson
Catalina 34 #224 (1986) C34IA Secretary
Cowichan Bay, BC, SR/FK, M25, Rocna 10 (22#) (NZ model)
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08-07-2016, 11:57
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#7
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Carlsbad, CA
Boat: 1976 Sabre 28-2
Posts: 7,505
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Won't make enough of a difference to worry about leaving the sail uncovered for a month. If you can get a tarp or something that won't crowd the boat too much, go for it. Other than that, have a nice sail. Personally, have had sails up for nearly a month on long passages many times and the sails still lasted for years. Usually it's the stitching that goes before the cloth. The cloth doesn't seem to fail as much as it stretches out of shape that dictates replacement. Talking Dacron not the high tech laminates which are way more degraded by UV.
__________________
Peter O.
'Ae'a, Pearson 35
'Ms American Pie', Sabre 28 Mark II
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08-07-2016, 12:17
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: between the devil and the deep blue sea
Boat: a sailing boat
Posts: 20,420
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Take any cheap stuff and cover the sail. Anything, even an old sail or a polyethylene tarp.
UV kills your sails. Cover.
Cheers,
b.
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08-07-2016, 12:52
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: SoCal
Boat: Formosa 30 ketch
Posts: 1,004
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
is your friend.
Actually, a sail cover shouldn't take that long to make, you could make the basic cover now, and add the straps and such later.
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08-07-2016, 13:57
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 321
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Or, get with the program and finish that mainsail cover! Yeah, I know.
Still, I got a "kit" from Sailrite, which included all the fittings, Sunbrella, and thread. Did it on my 1968 Kenmore in a day or so. Gave Sailrite my boom length and they sent me the fabric with the cut lines marked on the fabric, and step by step instructions (and a video online) that took most of the guesswork out of it.
I hot-dogged it a little and used white thread on the navy Sunbrella...gotta get those stitches extra straight. Came out great.
Before I put the fasteners in, I took the cover to the boat and marked where I wanted them, so there wouldn't be places right where the boom vang or mainsheet attach. Then, returned home and put in the common sense fasteners.
Am I annoying?
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08-07-2016, 14:12
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#11
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Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, cruising in Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 28,434
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
What about using the old mainsail cover? If none, then the tarp will work. The deal about leaving it exposed, tied down on the boom, is that the UV that gets to the sail, while it is tied down, strikes mainly on the top panels at the head of the sail. So you'd create an excess of weakness there. It strikes differently, more evenly, not only on the head of the sail, while the sail is up.
Ann
PS. I made my first mainsail cover a long time ago, and so I don't remember how long it took, but I feel certain it was less than a week, most of the work done on the weekend, as I had a job outside the home, at the time. It is basically all straight stitching, and a simple logical construct. Anyhow, if you prioritize it up, the best would be to finish it off, before you go.
__________________
Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
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08-07-2016, 16:01
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#12
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Carrabelle, Florida
Boat: Fiberglas shattering 44' steel trawler
Posts: 6,083
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Ann, I nominate you for the title of "Seamstress of the Forum." I'm really impressed by your evident skill and advice on all topics that you speak to, but particularly anything to do with cloth.
--Tim.
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08-07-2016, 16:23
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#13
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: sailing south
Boat: Ericson 35-2
Posts: 330
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogern
A year in the sunlight? Really?
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Let's agree on "low number of years"? Pretty sure that it's not much longer than a year or two in the East Med. Sunny all the time, and close to the equator.
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08-07-2016, 16:57
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Wilbur By The Sea, FL
Boat: Catalina 30
Posts: 661
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
When I am actually on the boat and moving the sail cover stays below most of the time. A tarp that is big enough to double as a boom tent would be my choice.
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08-07-2016, 17:22
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Seal Cove, ME
Boat: Cheoy Lee Clipper 42 schooner
Posts: 51
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Re: Leaving mainsail exposed
Last time I looked (OK, I googled it a few minutes ago.) Tripoli, in the southern Med was at 33 deg North, about the same latitude as Cape Hatteras and L.A, not arctic, but a ways north of the equator.
__________________
Roger Noble
S/V Alchemy, Cheoy Lee Clipper 42 Schooner
Seal Cove, Maine
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