Storing sails

[Rum_Pirate]

What is the best method of storing (small 100 sq ft or less) sails for periods of a month or more in a hot (85ºF) environment?

Roll them, fold them other? <span style="color:blue"> </span>

 

[fluffc]

What type of sail material?

Traditional sail materials can put up with lots of abuse. Temperature isn't a problem - humidity is. Make sure the sails are quite dry when you stuff/fold/etc them into their sail bags, and store in a dry place.

If they are very new sails, or made of Kevlar or some other exotic material, then they should by loosly rolled, and stored in long sail bags without any weight on top of them.

 

[grumpydog]

And make sure that wherever you store them there are no rats or mice. A nibble from one of these can go through many folds... It happens often. Your local sailmaker might store them for you. This service is usually pretty cheap.

 

[Peterduck]

For Terylene/Dacron sails, which are the most common kind, fold the sail into layers parallel with the foot, and commencing at the foot. The width of each layer should be the length of the sail bag. If it is a triangular sail, the luff should describe a zig-zag across the folded sail. Starting at the leech end of the folded sausage, roll it up and place it in the bag. Everything should be kept as loose as possible to maximise ventilation.
Peter.

 

[oldfrank]

Or you could have them vacuum packed..... OF

 

[Porthandbuoy]

[ QUOTE ]
Or you could have them vacuum packed..... OF

[/ QUOTE ]

SWMBO does that with spare blankets, duvets and the like. Some sort of special plastic sack with vaccum claner attachment. Don't think it's such a good idea with sails though, the creases would be damaging.

Of course you might have made the suggestion tongue in cheek /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif