Why am I keeping my old sails.....

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roblpm

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Just clearing out the garage. I replaced the original 1991 sails on my boat with some cruiser laminates a couple of years ago. Will probably sell the boat in 5 years. Should I keep the original sails?! And how to dispose of them if not. I imagine after 8 years in the garage they will be pretty manky anyway?!
 
You may get something for them on eBay but I sold some hank on sails including an unused storm jib - aren't they all - and got very little. But it did clear some room in the shed!
Otherwise there is a trend for holdall made from sail cloth these days, so, if your handy with a Singer, this could be an option.
 
I've got the original 2001 sails from my boat, tired but still useable in a pinch, dry stored in the attic (and not manky in any way thankfully). They are there because the resale value of them is less than their value as emergency spares which could save a season if some catastrophe should befall one of my laminates in, say, June, and I was waiting weeks/months for a repair/replacement.
 
Absolutely keep them.

If they were stored dry they should be ok, if they were stored wet they may be stained but still usable.

This year I badly damaged/scrapped my main and flew the original from 1979, it worked fine. The alternative would have been an expensive and short term repair which, even so, would have cost part of the season.
 
We used to put the old sails on for the winter - keeping the good sails ashore and dry.
If stay in commission during the winter, this is a good way of keeping sailing but not risking damage to the expensive good sails.
 
dunedin said:
We used to put the old sails on for the winter - keeping the good sails ashore and dry.
If stay in commission during the winter, this is a good way of keeping sailing but not risking damage to the expensive good sails.
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We have done the same with our first jib. The leach was knackered and I had it cut down as a winter sail. The mains were not recoverable as we reused the expensive cars.
 
Ok i am convinced......

Probably need to get them out and check em out.

Thanks for your input.
 
Yes, it is the long established custom to keep all of them until you sell the boat, then you put them all aboard and the new owner has a massive pile of old junk he knows nothing about, so he sticks them in the back of his garage collecting mildew until he sells the boat, then to get shot of them he sticks them aboard, and so it goes on until eternity.
Meanwhile brokers make lists of them with descriptions like 'fair' or 'unknown' as if they might add value.
 
Quandary said:
Yes, it is the long established custom to keep all of them until you sell the boat, then you put them all aboard and the new owner has a massive pile of old junk he knows nothing about, so he sticks them in the back of his garage collecting mildew until he sells the boat, then to get shot of them he sticks them aboard, and so it goes on until eternity.
Meanwhile brokers make lists of them with descriptions like 'fair' or 'unknown' as if they might add value.
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That was my point originally.....!
 
Just now I'm carrying out a massive de-junking operation brought about by house mods. Everything not useful, valuable or ornamental has to go, either tip or eBay. It's quite therapeutic and stuff lying unused sometimes for years disappears in a trice and, IS NEVER MISSED. My jars of old screws and rusty nails (some inherited from my grandfather), my box full of bottle and U traps which may be useful but never are, the latest is the onyx handled bath shower mixer (1970s) which was replaced when I re did our bathroom - now on eBay.
 
ghostlymoron said:
Just now I'm carrying out a massive de-junking operation brought about by house mods. Everything not useful, valuable or ornamental has to go, either tip or eBay. It's quite therapeutic and stuff lying unused sometimes for years disappears in a trice and, IS NEVER MISSED. My jars of old screws and rusty nails (some inherited from my grandfather), my box full of bottle and U traps which may be useful but never are, the latest is the onyx handled bath shower mixer (1970s) which was replaced when I re did our bathroom - now on eBay.
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Ah yes, but what about the things you need 10 minutes after you've thrown them out?:)
 
roblpm said:
Will probably sell the boat in 5 years. Should I keep the original sails?! And how to dispose of them if not. I imagine after 8 years in the garage they will be pretty manky anyway?!
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Save the new owner a job and bin them now! They will appreciate that act of kindness, says man who had to throw out the original​ sails from his last boat. :D
 
Spirit of Glenans said:
Ah yes, but what about the things you need 10 minutes after you've thrown them out?:)
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I used to run a business with a guy like you. We rented a warehouse to store all the bits amd pieces..... I pointed out that we definitely WOULD need on in every hundred things we chucked out and we would buy it when we did. Didn't make any difference......
 
ghostlymoron said:
... My jars of old screws and rusty nails (some inherited from my grandfather), my box full of bottle and U traps which may be useful but never are, the latest is the onyx handled bath shower mixer (1970s) which was replaced when I re did our bathroom - now on eBay.
Click to expand...

That's uncanny (apart from the bath shower mixer anyway) - you could become my decluttering consultant. :)

I've kept the last main and genoa in the garage on the 'it might ...' principle, but the powers that be keep noticing and other things have to be offered up as sacrificial victims in their place.
 
My neighbour had his garden landscaped at great cost. In it are 4 masts. 3 to which he attaches a Dinghy jib as a canopy for his B B Q then the 4th mast so he can extend the canopy with the mainsail for guests to gather under nearby.

I suppose one could do the same with some scaffold poles or 2*4 & some stays & if it rained a long pole up the middle would shed the water. At least one could then do " show off" barby's as to who had the biggest sails & who had now deemed to discard the best quality sails. Could be a converstion piece.

I can almost imagine someone getting their best laminate off the boat just to impress the neighbours. Then some jealous twit stubbing a fag out on it
 
Maybe big old sails are just the thing to re-cut as deck-shades, for stretching between the guardrail stanchions in the height of summer? Possibly not relevant in the UK.
 
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