Are lazy jack sail covers not waterproof

[Leisure 27]

I have been sailing for over 30 years and never had this problem. I bought a new sail cover recently. I live in Plymouth, it rains a lot. This winter it rained a really lot. I went for a sail on March 18 first time since October and the sail was absolutely wet through. Gallons of water. Never happened before. Have I got a rubbish sail cover? Amazingly the sail is not green but it is full of black dots. The winter was so bad last year there was little time to raise the sails and air them.

 

[westhinder]

Probably more to do with the material that is used than with the lazyjacks.
It is never a bad idea to take the sails off for dry winter storage, even more so if you have a roller furling genoa

 

[Kwik Decision]

Most of the stack packs I've seen have the zip at the top, which is not waterproof, together with mesh drain panels at the bottom to let water out. The sail still tends to collect lots of water though.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I hide under the sprayhood when hoisting our main. Visiting crew are directed to the trampolines, and my wife on the helm is always alert to the problem. 50 litres of cold rainwater down your neck at the start of a trip isn’t great.

 

[dunedin]

We had a new experience this month - hoisted sail and a lump of ice fell out !

We coat the sail cover in Fabsil each year, but still gets water in

 

[Robin]

my preference was for lazyjacks that were lowered and pulled out of the way before a proper 'old fashioned sail cover was put over the lowered sail, now tied with a few flat sail ties. sail cover rolled along the boom before hoisting and unrolled back to put in place over lowered sail using a stackpak I found led to dirty black stripes from rain water getting though the zip because the velcro zip cover never really did its job

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Have I got a rubbish sail cover?

No. Sailcovers are usually made of uncoated acrylic canvas which lets water through to a small extent.

 

[Daydream believer]

October to March , not used. Surely any sensible person would take the sails off & put them into storage. People talk about winter sailing, but living close to the water, as I do, one can see that very few actually do go winter sailing.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Did your sail cover have a mast boot to cover the exposed end?

 

[Stemar]

We had a new experience this month - hoisted sail and a lump of ice fell out !

We coat the sail cover in Fabsil each year, but still gets water in

One year I thought there would be some nice sailing days in winter for Cuppasoup sailing, so I left the sails on. There were some nice days, but pretty much only during the week, so the Cuppasoup sailing didn't happen. Come spring, I hoisted the main to find a bird had found the end of the stackpack to be a des res with internal toilet for the winter.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

October to March , not used. Surely any sensible person would take the sails off & put them into storage. People talk about winter sailing, but living close to the water, as I do, one can see that very few actually do go winter sailing.

We were out over the weekend.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Like most of sailing Lazyjacks/stackpacks are a compromise, the convenience of the Lazyjack/stackpack almost inevitably introduces a lower rain resistance than a furled sail with traditional sail cover, there are possibly ways of improving the weather resistence of a stackpack, but it would almost certainly reduce its convenience, so maybe water ingress is something we have to live with if we want the convenience of a stackpack.
I agree with those who are surprised that anyone would leave their sails on over the Winter months unless they really were Winter sailing, 6 months of cold wet weather when just standing there unused is not going to do the sails and canvass any good at all.

 

[Boathook]

The zip on my stackpack is on the top but to one side. I normally have the cover slopping to one side the encourage the water to drain off to start with. Fabsil gold helps to reduce the water entering via the material along with a 'boot' round the mast and first 2 foot of the boom so it overlaps the stack pack.

 

[geem]

No. Sailcovers are usually made of uncoated acrylic canvas which lets water through to a small extent.

Ours is PU coated. Zip has a velcro flap mainly to keep the sun off it. It helps keep some water out of the cover but it's not perfect. Still get some water getting in. I suspect some of it gets in via the boot from running down the mast

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Ours is PU coated. Zip has a velcro flap mainly to keep the sun off it. It helps keep some water out of the cover but it's not perfect. Still get some water getting in. I suspect some of it gets in via the boot from running down the mast

That I am sure happens with ours. I have started parking the boom a few degrees above horizontal, to discourage the water from running backwards along the sail folds. Not a complete solution but it seems to help.

 

[scottie]

Making sure that your boom is left in a position to drain rather than collect water does help

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Making sure that your boom is left in a position to drain rather than collect water does help

Our batten cars prevent us simply dropping the boom to the deck.

 

[Leisure 27]

Thank you for the useful answers. Angus, yours was the best. No need to buy a new sail cover. I do normally sail 2 or 3 days per month in winter but this year has been the worst winter I have ever encountered. Lesson learned I must hoist the main once a month if possible to dry and air it.