New sails

What are the best handling methods to preserve them?

Dont use them.

Roll laminate,
flake dacron

try to avoid creases

try to keep from UV

try to keep dry

rinse them with some frequency - salt crystals are just as scratchy to the sails as they are to your skin

this has been asked before so a search may bring up better detail

"try to avoid creases"

Just checking. I think the worst I do is drop them unceremoniously on the tramp at the end of the day.

Roll your mainsail from the top down (better for the luff).

But that means unrolling it on the tramp before you hoist and re-rolling it after you lower it, all of which puts more creases into it. i prefere to roll from the bottom as i hoist and drop - no creases!

Also if you have a halyard-less mainsail, rolling from the foot puts less roll in the head of the sail making it hook easier when pushing it up.

I roll from the top because rolling from the bottom would mean that the clear window would be more tightly wound and therefore more prone to problems.

Don't know if it actually helps, but made me feel better?

We rolled our main (and jib) around a piece of thin-wall, PVC, drain pipe. 4" dia. for the main, 2" for the jib.

Prevents "crushing" the sail...if someone falls in to your toybox

and we roll bottoms up

Always rolled from the first batten and up, never noticed any problems with the luff. Sails dont last that long anyway

If going upwind with loads of downhaul on, release the downhaul before sheeting out when rounding the top mark.
Dont let the sails flog.

My observation is that it depends on the sail cut on which way you roll it up.

For example: a H16 mainsail rolls best from the bottom up ... a TheMightyHobie18 from the top/head down .... P19MX from the top down.

and yes, I have to unroll both my TheMightyHobie18 and P19MX mainsails before hoisting them up the stick ...

So try rolling your mainsail both ways and verify which direction works best to keep the battens straight and flat, no creases, neatest finished package that fits best into your storage box.

I've seen the PVC trick ... I use it w/ my jib and then place that package inside my mainsail as I roll the main up. It makes a nice neat package in the sailbag, easy to carry, and to get up into my sail storage area in my garage loft

HarryMurphey

A lot of the Hobie Wave sails have the bottom batten angled down from a few feet up the mast to down and aft to the clew. This was a innovation by Randy Smyth, knowing the Wave had no traveler and no vang to keep the clew down.
It made rolling a bit cumbersome.
However, we discovered that by grabbing the lower batten at the luff and rolling, the sail rolled up really nice.
The angled top batten for the square-head could either be pulled out, or folded over to put in a bag.
Rick

If you roll from the bottom to the top you will trap any moisture that you may have on the bottom few panels inside the roll. Rolling from the top keeps the bottom panels on the outside of the roll which gives them a better chance of drying.

Putting the top batten on a sq. top main into the second batten pocket is always a good way to 1. not loose it, and 2. make rolling it from either way much easier.

I know everyone knows this, no-one posted it yet, since we were talking about rolling.

The way to deal with the top batten is also to roll from the foot, and then put the whole package into the trailer box. Works well enough if you sail two or three times a week. For prolonged storage, all battens need to be removed from the sail anyway,

I hang up my sails if they aren't going to be used for a while, or if they were put away wet, I like to hang them up in the basement so they are completly dry.

I roll from the bottom up, and still have to pull the top batten. Even removing the 2nd from the top would be nice to get a tighter package.

Its kinda nice having a unfinished basement. I almost don't want to finish it, its nice having a safe, warm, and dry spot for the boat in the winter. Tough to see in the pic, but the main is just behind the spin hanging away from the wall.

Karl,

Thousands of years from now, Archeologists are going to dig up your basement with a camera crew and one of Geraldo's ancestors and find find your boat. Perfectly intact like you left it. Then spend millions doing research on it to find out how the "mummification" process works. Then another program will show it as an "Alien Artifact". They'll be saying there's now way ancient man could have had this technology while your laptop will be in a box in the other room which is never discovered.

As I recall you live in Minn. Must be tough keeping anything warm up there.
When I did my videos of the seminars, Tim Johnson was the Producer and lives in St Paul. So, I had to spend a week there editing with him.
Never saw the sun and temps were never above 0 the entire time. When flying back, the plane broke through the clouds and Lordy Me.., there it was -- THE SUN!
Rick

Why people choose to live where its cold is beyond me.

Its 46F here right now and I want to kill myself just get to somewhere warmer :P

Supposed to get down to 30 degrees in Miami tonight. I am thinking about moving to Florida.., Oh Wait! I am in Florida.


Rick

Is it too late to invest in Orange futures? :P

I will be putting my old sails on the garden tomorrow night to keep the frost off.

Karl, I thought I was spoiled having a garage to keep my boat in. A warm basement, that is luxury!

You must have some "wide doors".

PS it must have taken allot of time to wrap your walls in aluminum foil

The foil is part of the insulation, reflects the heat back in. or, at least that's what I tell people so they don't know its really there to block the alien signal..... damn!




The boat had to come apart and go through the window. I did it by myself, so it wasn't too bad.

Undecided,
That is the best line I have herd in a while. I will be right behind you.

The foil does nothing to stop our signals but Karl you are on the list. Which list you may ask I'll never tell.

Adelaide, Australia last 6 days have been over 40deg C (105 F), worst day was 45C (115 F). A cold chill would be nice.

It's 17 degrees F, here in sunny South Carolina. That must be like -1000 degress C.

Come on over.

This morning it is in the 40s in the Florida Keys. Unbelievable, huh Al?

19F here north of ATL.

Damn Canadians need to keep their arctic air up there :P

...and store rolled (starting from the middle, so you have easy access to both the top and the bottom), vacuum bagged.

see, what ya'll snowberds don't git is that when it does drop down all frigid like dis here cold snap, the sun is out and the temps git back to 70ish by time dem cows is dun wit lunch.

Cold snaps is what we use to remind us why we don't wanna live in dem sities up north of da mason-dixon.

I don't mind a skeeters and August. Shore beats 9 months of freezin' my belly-button lint..

Up to a balmy 25'F

grrrr

Thank goodness were all dealing with Global warming. Just think how cold it would be if we weren't.

What would be the reasoning behind that? Definitely you want to release the tension from the battens, especially if you generally carry them tight. But remove the battens...why?

sm

If you roll the sail for a longer period of time (e.g over winter) and let the battens stay in the pockets, they will come out nicely curved or in an S-shape.
Tried and tested with both hollow carbon and glass/foam battens

C'mon Rolf we need a temperature from you to beat all the yanks!

Hi Rolf!

Where are these guys?

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1778399&server=vimeo.com&show

Oh believe me - I know its colder elsewhere. I also know that I'm a panzee about the cold.

However, when you move to a place nicknamed "Hotlanta"... you have a certain expectation of the climate there. I don't like the cold, I hate it, and will do anything to escape it. I've got 3 computers running in my office and its 85F in here. Couldn't be happier

Until you get the power bill, oh wait GA runs on coal... nevermind.

last power bill was like, $85.

My company helps subsidize it since 2 of the 3 of the computers are theirs.

The offshoring of jobs hasn't hurt you! Uncle Larry wouldn't even pay my cable modem bill. I shouldn't be too hard on him, lawyers are expensive and carbon aint cheap.

The footage is from an area called Romsdal. I live in the same area, but about 70kms from the jumping spots. The spots you see in the movie are the Troll Wall area, the Eresfjord area, the Innfjord area and perhaps some other places as well.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romsdal

Here is a link to a norwegian nutcase, former gymnastics champion turned BASE jumper. Filmed in the same area.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WPkjPWu-NWA


Those guys are nuts, and not in a good way. Usually one or several go splat every year. Then the alpine rescue teams try to get them down with helicopters and police support. Big newslines and lots of bruhaha.
As you can imagine, you get good at gust handling when sailing between mountains like that

Pete,

Thank is one awesome video! Thanks

Sorry to dissapoint you. It was just -2degC here today or 28degF. Thanks to the gulfstream, I could sail year round if my boat was finished. What stops me is the lack of daylight. Dark when going to work, dark when returning. Thank [insert deity of choice] it is spring soon so we can get more daylight.

I'm south of Houston right now, It's 59F right now,
It'll be 79F tomorrow.

I'm moving to Milwaukee in a few months though. We'll see how long that lasts, or rather my family and I last living where it's so cold every year.

Just to make you feel better it was 6 degrees this morning when my wife woke me up and told me I had to get up and put gas in her car before she leaves for work....

But it's a dry cold....

Only til you wet your pants to warm up.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank Bob Webbon over on the A cat site.

Oh it hasn't hurt me. All those "offshore" workers need plenty of "management". I say "management" because its more like "fix all of their mistakes before we send this work to the client." So yeah basically we tried to offshore, found out that we spent more $ in rework getting it right than having us do it correctly the first time.

Weather service perdicts -24c tonight, it's going to be cold tomorrow morning

Fred

Two weeks ago it was -33*F on my way to work. I almost turned around and went home. I'm a little shocked my pickup didn't gel up. January was spent mostly below zero, we had one day,(and that was the last day), in January that actually got above freezing. It got to almost 40*F and I was content being outside with no coat. I'm with Tad, but way stoopider for living this far north.

ALL WEATHER, ALL THE TIME.

I just knew there could not have been 26 posts on how to store your sails since my last visit.

Fear not; Spring is coming.

Don, that's your old SNU. Actually the reason the boat is semi assembled.

Have you got to use it on the water yet?

Noooooo. I think I knocked the boat apart the the weekend before it arrived.

14'F when I walked Tybee this morning.

Ugh!!!!

That's just a rumor, I'm not convinced.

"Fear not; Spring is coming."

I will believe you when this freak gives up and melts! The dogs keep barking at it cos it scares them

maybe it's because he's defying gravity and hanging out sideways? That would scare me too.

I've heard that before.