Flaking a sail single handed.

Oops. I don’t have a stack pack or lazy jacks. I’m always singlehanded. I just let it go. Mouth full of sail ties and start at the leech and make my way to the mast.

Most undignified and think I’ll try some lazy jacks but it’s fine apart from when it’s wet and windy.

Steveeasy
 
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I put a turn around the coachroof winch before I release the clutch then take the tail with me to the mast. That way I can control how fast ithe maincomes down as I lower it. I flake the luff as I lower the sail and let the leech go where it wants. one flake per slug. After I’ve put the halyard on the end of the boom and tensioned it, I put the flakes in along the leech, pulling the sail aft to get proper flakes. Seems to work for me. The trick is to get the mast end right, if you don’t do this then youve no chance of tidying up afterwards.
 
I sail SH most of the time so do not have time to play at packing sails away.
I let the sail drop into the stack pack & thank my lucky stars that it has all gone in OK. My stack pack has toggles built in near the front third and I can clamp the sail with these for speed and zip latter if it. Is rough. They do help to take the weight off the zip. I zip from the mast so when I move aft I give the leech a tug to straighten it a bit., However, I have single line reefing so pulling in the reef lines from the gooseneck so that the loops at the aft end of the boom do not garrotte me also pulls the leech out for me
apart from that I see no point in trying to flake the sail as it falls quite ok on its own
 
LadyInBed said:
Distribute the sail ties along a jackstay that you clip to the boom end and mast.
It makes life so much easier.
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Yes very good idea. That would massively help while I’m getting thrown from side to side while hanging on to the boom.

It’s these little things that can make all the difference. The top tip of 2022 I was given was to tie a bowline on the end of my Genoa sheets. I hook these on a cleat and never now find myself clambering forward to the cars to retrieve them
Steveeasy
 
Either single handed of with crew I find that getting the sail to flake at the mast means the rest of the sail seems to follow. As I have a stack pack, the sail quite often stays like that when single handed until moored up. With crew it is zipped up in the stack cover which hides any uneven flaking. As my sail is fairly new I'm still training it !
 
Poignard said:
Mine has a 300mm length of shock cord at one end to keep it taut.

It’s a good system. Good because it's simple.
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As does mine ? also stainless bungee hooks on the ends of the line that clip to the boom.

steveeasy said:
The top tip of 2022 I was given was to tie a bowline on the end of my Genoa sheets. I hook these on a cleat and never now find myself clambering forward to the cars to retrieve them
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The method that I use for sheets is to put the stopper knot far enough forward so that the bitter end is still in the cockpit when the stopper meets the car, also for halyards, stopper far enough up the halyard so when it reaches the mast entry the tail is still reachable.
 
fredrussell said:
Do other single-handers manage a perfect flake
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Life is too short for perfect flakes. I release the clutch watch the sail collapse into the sail bag, saunter up to the mast, grab the zip and slide it to the end of the boom then retire to the cockpit for a dram.
 
RupertW said:
I used to use an octopus before I had a stack pack but went off in favour of sail tyes after being whacked in the teeth a couple of times when stretching to connect it.
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Some years ago I read about a guy single ha ding in the Solent. He got whacked in the face by a clip on a bungee cord. Smashed through a lens in his glasses causing blood, extreme pain, blindness in one eye and a loss of consciousness for 20 minutes.

I haven't used bungee since.....

I don't do single handing but I do show people how to stow mainsails of all ages. Simply drop the sail completely. Pop the halyard in a loop around mast winch or reefing horn and hand tension. Then it's simple to start aft, pulling the leech tight all the time as you work forward with neat folds securing with sail ties as you go. Looks good, feels good. (y)
 
fredrussell said:
... Do other single-handers manage a perfect flake, and if so, what’s yer secret? Do you do one fold at mast, then go aft to put the corresponding fold in at the leech, then back to mast and so on?

Any tips gratefully received.
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I don't have a stack pack, but a single hand a 41 foot yacht, fully buttoned main. When lowering the sail, at the mast, I pull the folds between the slides alternating port and starboard. I guess if cockpit controlled halyard, it doesn't really matter. I lower the boom so that it is easily accessible at waist height, lower than the normal stowed position. I use 5 sail ties, so these are just hung round my neck in a droop, not wrapped around my neck, for obvious reasons. Starting at the clew end, I grab the fist batten, pull aft tightly, and place it on the boom, this is usually the hardest part as the sail wants to fall off. I then grab the second batten and do the same. I fit a sail tie between the two battens. Once the first sail tie is on, I take a bit of time to pull back the leach, working up the sail to the head, sorting out any creases or capsized folds. Then I repeat for the other buttons up to the head of the sail. I find that the sail sits neatly.

For standard mainsails without full battens, I used to grab the leach about 2/3 of the way up to the first reefing point, pull right back tight and it makes a bag, hammock like shape. I would then flip the rest of the sail into this bag, hammock shape pulling back the leach and working my along the fold edge. Once the sail was in the bag, hammock, I would tuck the edge into the foot and roll it between the foot and the sail in the bag. Keep rolling it in until the sail looked like a tube of material. Once is as tight as I could, Would roll the middle uo onto the boom and cinch it in place with a sail tie. Then tie the rest on top as well. It took a bit linger than the FB main sail and significantly longer that a stack pack system, thats for sure. It looked good in a traditional sort of way.
 
capnsensible said:
[...] Then it's simple to start aft, pulling the leech tight all the time as you work forward with neat folds securing with sail ties as you go. Looks good, feels good. (y)
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... and by golly*, it does you good!

* For the avoidance of doubt, and to deny 'you know who' the pleasure of reporting me, the word 'golly' is not being used here in any racist sense. :)

1660996042422.png
 
capnsensible said:
He got whacked in the face by a clip on a bungee cord. Smashed through a lens in his glasses causing blood, extreme pain, blindness in one eye and a loss of consciousness for 20 minutes.

I haven't used bungee since.....
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I use adjustable bungee clips on the bungees on my jackstay. The end with the clip is about 4 inches from the jackstay, so it's only the bungee end that could fly.

TRC-Bungee-Quick-Clip-Cords-00.jpg
 
With my old boat I just dropped the main and sort it in the harbour, where I would, like you, fold the the flakes first at the boom end (left, right, left, right) and then walk aft and pull the leech according the the previous folds, starting at the lower ones working upwards, and every few folds I would put a sailtie around, step forward and do more flakes, sailtie, step forward, rinse and repeat until you're at your mast.

It takes 5 minutes. And then the sailcover goes over it anyway.
 
DangerousPirate said:
With my old boat I just dropped the main and sort it in the harbour, where I would, like you, fold the the flakes first at the boom end (left, right, left, right) and then walk aft and pull the leech according the the previous folds, starting at the lower ones working upwards, and every few folds I would put a sailtie around, step forward and do more flakes, sailtie, step forward, rinse and repeat until you're at your mast.

It takes 5 minutes. And then the sailcover goes over it anyway.
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This was also my method, especially since the main had to be pulled down at the mast (and no amount of teflon spray mitigated against this). If very windy, I'd just use one tie to hold the bulk of the sail to the boom and sort it out at the mooring. Lighter winds allowed me to flake in the harbour, though sometimes I'd do some tidying before I put on the cover.
 
Neil said:
This was also my method, especially since the main had to be pulled down at the mast (and no amount of teflon spray mitigated against this). If very windy, I'd just use one tie to hold the bulk of the sail to the boom and sort it out at the mooring. Lighter winds allowed me to flake in the harbour, though sometimes I'd do some tidying before I put on the cover.
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Yeah, I have lazyjacks so I can just be lazy and let the sail down really, but I planned to get a new sailtrack, tides marine makes them and Harken also does their variation. Had to put the idea beside for now as I need to sort the engine first though.
The general idea being: As soon as you let go of the halyard it just DROPS. No running forward, wrestling the sail down, running back to steer back into wind, going back forward wrestling the rest of the sail etc etc.
 
RunAgroundHard said:
I don't have a stack pack, but a single hand a 41 foot yacht, fully buttoned main. When lowering the sail, at the mast, I pull the folds between the slides alternating port and starboard. I guess if cockpit controlled halyard, it doesn't really matter. I lower the boom so that it is easily accessible at waist height, lower than the normal stowed position. I use 5 sail ties, so these are just hung round my neck in a droop, not wrapped around my neck, for obvious reasons. Starting at the clew end, I grab the fist batten, pull aft tightly, and place it on the boom, this is usually the hardest part as the sail wants to fall off. I then grab the second batten and do the same. I fit a sail tie between the two battens. Once the first sail tie is on, I take a bit of time to pull back the leach, working up the sail to the head, sorting out any creases or capsized folds. Then I repeat for the other buttons up to the head of the sail. I find that the sail sits neatly.

For standard mainsails without full battens, I used to grab the leach about 2/3 of the way up to the first reefing point, pull right back tight and it makes a bag, hammock like shape. I would then flip the rest of the sail into this bag, hammock shape pulling back the leach and working my along the fold edge. Once the sail was in the bag, hammock, I would tuck the edge into the foot and roll it between the foot and the sail in the bag. Keep rolling it in until the sail looked like a tube of material. Once is as tight as I could, Would roll the middle uo onto the boom and cinch it in place with a sail tie. Then tie the rest on top as well. It took a bit linger than the FB main sail and significantly longer that a stack pack system, thats for sure. It looked good in a traditional sort of way.
Click to expand...
I would love to see that hammock action in video.
 
I tried this idea a couple times but was not that successful.
eOceanic

A few years back there was a French yacht berthed next to me who had thin lines running from the leach of his main tied to stainless rings on the topping lift which flaked the sail as it came down.
 
Although not perfect, a stack pack works well for me. I then use a harbour stow when berthed.

I wonder if anyone uses a downhaul on the top slug/batten in order to get all of the luff down.

I always seem to have to go forward to get the last 20% down. This despite regular lubrication of the slides.
 
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