capt jake Posted March 19, 2004 Posted March 19, 2004 OK, been pre-occupied, and probably will be, with other items (way too many........). I need to get Fire Escape ready for something...?? I need to know the best way to lash the main sail for travel. ? Simple ties seam like they might be a bother. Sewing a cover to encase the thing also seems bothersome, though the most relevant choice I have in mind (a full cover with zipper). Thoughts?? Quote
Mike Kelley Posted March 19, 2004 Posted March 19, 2004 Hey capt. I want to make a sail cover out of 25oz. canvas drop cloths from home depot, I have a litle sewing experience with kites, using velcro(easier to work with)would work beter than a zipper. also a can of scotch-guard would waterproof it. Ahh, I have great and grandoise plans..ZZZZZZ Mike Quote
capt jake Posted March 19, 2004 Author Posted March 19, 2004 I was thinking more on the lines of sunbrella. As it already is weather resistant. I sew, but I dont' WANT to! (like everything else that needs to be done)!. Quote
Dave Ruedel Posted March 19, 2004 Posted March 19, 2004 I usually drop my gaff on top of the boom, then roll the sail up as tight as I can next to them, take a 1/4 inch line, tie off near the mast, and wrap it around the sail and spars until I get to the end, making it as tight as possible, especially towards the front. This has worked so far. At home, everything is under at tarp until I get ready to head out again. Thought about a sleeve, but then it means detaching the lines from the gaff, which always seem to get tangled up somehow when I go to reattach them. Crude, but iot seems to work. Quote
Mike Pennington Posted March 19, 2004 Posted March 19, 2004 Jake, If your going to travel far, with the sail on the boom, I would go with a cover of some kind. Have you ever seen a tarp on the back of a truck that wasn't tied down all the way? Shreds in the wind. I am not sure what materials you used for sails, I think you were leaning towards Paul's right? I was thinking of canvas with snaps that would fit over the mast base as well as the boom back to the A-frame I built to support the mast and boom. I modified my mast and boom set up to the Weekender style with the boom below the hinge. Makes a nicer package with all the halyards and stays bungeed up neatly to the mast. Definitely less set up time. Unfortunately, all the lakes are to far to trailer with my sails on. So maybe I Quote
Brent Posted March 19, 2004 Posted March 19, 2004 I built sail bags from heavy duty nylon fabric. The bags have full length zips that make easy work of covering the sails. My on board fabric consultant directed me the a local fabric store (major act of heroism to enter such establishment). The fabric is not weather and UV resistant like Sunbrella. This works fine for me, since the sails are stored out of the weather. I got 12 foot long zips from http://www.canvasdealer.com/fabric.asp. Whole thing was not very expensive (way less than Sunbrella), and the project took one evening to sew up. The bags keep the sails clean and out of trouble during transport. Quote
capt jake Posted March 19, 2004 Author Posted March 19, 2004 Brent, do you have any pictures of what your bag ended up looking like? That is what I have hand in mind. Any problem with wind entering the forward end of the bag when traveling? Quote
Brent Posted March 19, 2004 Posted March 19, 2004 It will be several days before I have a chance to take a picture, so rather than wait I will try to describe. The sails on my Core Sound attach to the mast with sail track slugs. I take the sails off the mast for transport. The bag is designed to easily slip over the flaked sail, zip up, then the sail bound by the bag is removed from the sail track. Reverse for gearing up. The bag is made big so that the sail is not crunched in the bag, and there is room to breath. I measured the diameter of the flaked sail and added about 8 inches. The zip simply runs the enter length of the bag, so that the bag can be spread open over the flaked sail. I added webbing handles to help with carrying the bag. During transport the bags lay on the seat out of the wind. Quote
capt jake Posted March 19, 2004 Author Posted March 19, 2004 Oh, know I see. As my sails are lashed to the mast rings and gaff, I intend on a bag to cover them in place. Lower teh gaff to the boom and put a cover over this bundle; then lower the mast. Unless there is an easy way of removing/installing the main on a Weekender??? Quote
Arnie Eaton Posted March 19, 2004 Posted March 19, 2004 Jake, you should take in account the lines for the gaff. Either have a lot of line so you can take the lines to the mast before you put the cover on or lower the mast and then put the cover on the whole lot. I'm thinking of covering after all are together. Quote
capt jake Posted March 19, 2004 Author Posted March 19, 2004 I have lots of line there. I have been taking up all of the slack after teh mast is lowerd and stowing it in a bag affixed to the rear of the cabin. Quote
MikeStevenson Posted March 19, 2004 Posted March 19, 2004 On ours we drop the main, flake the sail a bit, then drop the mast. With everything on the boom crutch, we tighten the main sheet so things don't swing around, then wrap the whole bundle in the main sheet. If you do a sort of extended hitch along the rig, it holds everything nicely. We made a cover from a drop cloth (canvas, cheap, fast, re-doable), but it doesn't trailer well (ballons up, tears.) Mike Quote
Mike Kelley Posted March 20, 2004 Posted March 20, 2004 Thanks for the info, I hate sewing!! I'll try something else Mike Quote
capt jake Posted March 22, 2004 Author Posted March 22, 2004 Mike, sewing is way too easy! It is just getting over that 'fear'! My wife just had to have a new sewing machine (as she never has had one before). I gave her lessons, ..guess who still does all of the sewing (the little that is done)? ME! Quote
capt jake Posted March 27, 2004 Author Posted March 27, 2004 Ok 2 1/2 hours and the cover is done. Approx $45 but if I had taken the time to sew a few seems, I could have cut the material cost in half. Zips from fore to aft and completely covers the sail, boom, and gaff. The mast will fold down next to it and I will lash the few remaining lines. I made 'flaps' to wrap around the fore end of the stub to cover up the billowed out ends of the sail. Looks pretty good, one spot is a little tight, but it should work really well. Even color coordinated green. When I find the camera, I will take a picture! Tractor is due on Wednesday! Quote
capt jake Posted March 28, 2004 Author Posted March 28, 2004 Want to make another? And ship it? My sewing on this isn't as pretty as I would like. Not enough hands to manipulate everything. I have enough left over to do another.. Let me think about it. And... I wasn't about to launch it in December! Remember, I didn't get the sails until late fall. I figure I did right by waiting and working out some of the bugs in the rigging (oh, and installing teh battery, etc). I am really happy with the way the sails turned out! Thanks Paul!!! :) :) Quote
capt jake Posted March 30, 2004 Author Posted March 30, 2004 OK, found the camera Well dadgummit! imagestation is giving me fits again. Can't copy it from my hard drive either. ??? OK, I give up! :x Quote
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