Fed up with UV strip on my Genny

[Refueler]

Going back to the OP.

Why are you "fed up" with something that is doing what it is intended to do: protecting the furled sail from sunrise to sunset. The fact that it is now in a bad state indicates that it has indeed been working, in much the same way that an anode that is pitted and lost much of its zinc shows that it has been working.

Removing the UV strip is only an hour or two's work. Just go to a sewing shop and get a seam ripper, a small forked blade with a handle, the bottom fork slides under the stitches and the thread is cut in the fork. Replacing the strip is no more than two days work, probably a lot less, to cut and sew on with a sewing machine. I used light weight tan sailcloth from ebay because the tan fades as the cloth is degraded by UV giving a visual indication of its state. Putting it on in sections the width of the cloth (minus overlaps) took care of the curved edges of the sail.

If you chose to leave the strip off the sail will rapidly deteriorate. Even hank on sails suffer from UV degradation when well used. While looking at a 42 ft sloop for sale in the 80's the heavy working jib felt brittle. The owner said he would get in valeted. I suggested it was beyond that and asked if I could tear it. He said yes and looked at me as if I was mad. His expression changed rapidly when the sail cloth tore along a line of stitching as easily as perforated paper.

The sail flogged and UV strip was shredded as its so light ..................

I have my reasons ....

Tks for idea of the seam ripper ....

 

[LittleSister]

Go to the Netherlands & you will see a lot of boats do not have a UV strip. Instead they have a cover that slides up the sail. One cover suits all sails. Plus there are no issues with them coming unfurled in high winds
Just a faff putting them on, but those that have them seem to do it quite quickly when used to it.

....... but they often do flog badly in strong winds, shaking the rig

They can also be noisy enough to annoy pontoon neighbours.

The thing that you have to remember is that it is a 2 person task hoisting a laced cover. Unless one can find a way of hoisting the halyard, whilst keeping tension on the laces & lining up the cover.

I can do mine alone but it’s laborious. Much quicker and easier with one on the foredeck and one on the halyard.

They are a simple and generic thing, luff length is the only variable really.

I have one of those sleeves (and no UV strip on the foresail), merely because that's what came with the (Danish origins) boat.

Yes, it does take a few minutes to rig up single handed. It would be much faster with two people, or one person with three hands! (As I write this, I'm mentally designing a portable treadle-operated gadget to haul the halyard as I feed the sleeve onto the sail and foil, and pull the zip down as the sleeve rises!)

Mine has cords which criss-cross down the sleeve, and you tighten these to wrap it more tightly around the furled foresail. I imagine it could still flap in very strong winds, but can't remember ever hearing it.

I'd prefer the standard UK set up of a UV strip on a suitable foresail, but not enough to shell out for a new genoa, and I'm not sure it's worth putting a UV strip on my current foresail.

 

[Refueler]

By time I was to hoist a sail cover and tighten it ... surely I could take the sail off in similar time ??

 

[LittleSister]

By time I was to hoist a sail cover and tighten it ... surely I could take the sail off in similar time ??

Depends how high the wind is!

And how big the sail is!

If single handed it would take me longer to get the sail down than to put the sleeve up, and that's if it was calm. In anything of a wind it would be a real trial, to be repeated with additional challenges next time I want to put the sail up again. (Getting the sleeve off, by contrast, is rather faster than putting it on.) And do I really want a mass of salty, quite possibly soaking wet, sail down below?

 

[srm]

The sail flogged and UV strip was shredded as its so light ..................

But surely that was a choice made by you and/or the person who fitted the UV strip.
As a general rule: light cloth = lower material cost = shorter working life.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

By time I was to hoist a sail cover and tighten it ... surely I could take the sail off in similar time ??

You’d never get ours down, or up again, in more than about 10kn. Or else it would trash itself in the effort.

 

[Daydream believer]

Some blade sails have vertical battens. That makes flaking on the deck impossible & one does not want to just stuff a laminate sail into a sail bag. It does take me a while to insert/remove these battens. However, I prefer to change down sail area than furl a sail so I have just the one choice. Without the battens it would be very easy as the sail would just drop into the very nice long sail bag that has been supplied with my laminate sail.
My genoa fits into my mainsail bag with ease

 

[Daydream believer]

But surely that was a choice made by you and/or the person who fitted the UV strip.
As a general rule: light cloth = lower material cost = shorter working life.

Read #44 his sails are in good condition after 19 years so perhaps that is not the case

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Some blade sails have vertical battens. That makes flaking on the deck impossible & one does not want to just stuff a laminate sail into a sail bag. It does take me a while to insert/remove these battens. However, I prefer to change down sail area than furl a sail so I have just the one choice. Without the battens it would be very easy as the sail would just drop into the very nice long sail bag that has been supplied with my laminate sail.
My genoa fits into my mainsail bag with ease

Ours has those battens. A nuisance on deck, but bloody marvellous for leech shape.

 

[Daydream believer]

Ours has those battens. A nuisance on deck, but bloody marvellous for leech shape.

One of my jibs did not have leech battens. It had not occurred to me to mention them in the order. I asked the sail maker why they were not there? He sail "Because I make sails, not tents" I have to admit the leech never did develop flutter. It did not have a roach like my others, but even my laminate can be a nuisance & need adjustment of the leech & foot lines. But being Bainbridge dacron it eventually tubed in the head, so I had to change it.

 

[billskip]

Mine has cords which criss-cross down the sleeve, and you tighten these to wrap it more tightly around the furled foresail. I imagine it could still flap in very strong winds, but can't remember ever hearing it.

Have you any idea or do you know when these covers were first introduced?
You give me the impression that they are quite popular in northern Europe countries.

 

[dunedin]

Have you any idea or do you know when these covers were first introduced?
You give me the impression that they are quite popular in northern Europe countries.

When I was sailing in Norway and Sweden almost all boats that left their jibs up had UV strips like the UK. There were a few with the hoist up covers - I remember them due to the flogging in the winds.
Seems a lot of extra work compared to simply furling the jib, and the UV strip gives a neater and tighter result which survives storms.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Have you any idea or do you know when these covers were first introduced?
You give me the impression that they are quite popular in northern Europe countries.

My boat is Danish of course. Though I have seen them on other boats too.

 

[srm]

Read #44 his sails are in good condition after 19 years so perhaps that is not the case

Unless I miss understood he also said that he had replaced the UV strip.

 

[LittleSister]

Have you any idea or do you know when these covers were first introduced?
You give me the impression that they are quite popular in northern Europe countries.

I have little knowledge of them apart from having one. I imagine they pre-dated the availability of decent quality, not too stiff, sacrificial strips. The advantage seems to be that you can have a furling sail without compromising the cut and weight of it by adding a heavy stiff edge to the leech and foot. (Not that my boat has any pretensions to a relentless focus on performance!)

I'm only guessing that is a Northern European thing because others have mentioned seeing them in Netherlands and Scandinavia (though I have occasionally seen them in the UK), and my boat was not just built, but also spent its earlier years, in Denmark.

 

[Refueler]

Unless I miss understood he also said that he had replaced the UV strip.

UV has been replaced 2x by me ... so that makes 3 UV strips since I bought the boat about 25yrs ago.

The present UV strip was shredded when I had an incident where I could not get sail furled ..... long story not for now.

 

[Refueler]

But surely that was a choice made by you and/or the person who fitted the UV strip.
As a general rule: light cloth = lower material cost = shorter working life.

Your post implies that I am to fault and was a cheapskate !!

The UV strip was fitted as recc'd by the sailmaker - not me. It was no backstreet cheap matter.

 

[Refueler]

Depends how high the wind is!

And how big the sail is!

If single handed it would take me longer to get the sail down than to put the sleeve up, and that's if it was calm. In anything of a wind it would be a real trial, to be repeated with additional challenges next time I want to put the sail up again. (Getting the sleeve off, by contrast, is rather faster than putting it on.) And do I really want a mass of salty, quite possibly soaking wet, sail down below?

Never thought it a chore or difficult when I had boats without furler ....

As regards the wet sail and stowage .... I have home mooring ... yes my boats - I have 4 - sit at bottom of my garden. I have a large workshop with a 3rd floor of 12m by 4m - I can actually lay out a sail if needed. In fact I plan to do that as soon as weather improves - its winter .... to compare a number of other sails I have to the existing ...
I would only be removing the sail when at home and boat is unused for reasonable length of time. When cruising / trips - sail can stay up for that ....

 

[Major Tom]

The strip panels on my five year old Elvstrom have ripped to hell - not due to UV (in the UK - ha!) ... but rips propagating from the raw cut and unstitched edge of the cloth on the bottom of the panels to let rainwater out. Asked Elvstrom about it, their answer being that at five years, I should expect them to fail. That doesn't sound very long to me, and from reading the posts above. Also, the strip looked terrible under sail, as the wind blows into the rain vents and inflates the entire leech like a balloon. Rubbish. When I replace the strip, can I omit the rain vents and sow up the lower edge of the panel? - the current design looks destined to fail after a very short time.

 

[dunedin]

Your post implies that I am to fault and was a cheapskate !!

The UV strip was fitted as recc'd by the sailmaker - not me. It was no backstreet cheap matter.

The full name of the UV strip is “sacrificial UV strip” - it is intended to be just that, an easily replaced piece of cloth that is changed / sacrificed every 5 or more years, to preserve the rest of the sail.

I appreciate it may be a hassle finding a sailmaker to replace the sacrificial UV strip if in an out of the way place. But I would have thought any tent maker or whatever with an industrial sewing machine could put on a UV strip.