sail storage

[steve brown]

I have my Suncat sail off the boat and in its dedicated bag. Should
I have removed the battens  before bagging the sail; it was a bit difficult to get the sail in the bag? Thank you. Steve

[capt_nemo]

YES! Always remove battens before bagging a sail. Otherwise, you risk potential damage to the battens and the batten pockets.

capt_nemo

[skip1930]

Hear capt_nemo. You can roll or fold the loose batons into the sail so you don't loose them but be careful not to bend them in storage over the winter.
My sail bags from Johnson Sails are huge.

skip.

[steve brown]

Thank you gentlemen for the excellent advice. I took out the 3 Battens and repacked the sail easily in its bag. While I am on the subject of the sail, could I ask what your procedure is for getting it back on the spars and tabernacle? My thought would be to mount the sail on the boom off the boat and the bring it all aboard and set the lugs in the tabernacle followed by adding it on the gaff. I appreciate your continuing fine advice. Steve

[capt_nemo]

Steve,

Whether you bend the sail onto the boom off or on the  boat is a matter of personal preference and cleanliness of work area. However, the aft end of the boom (with or without sail) should be placed in the boom gallows first for support, while you control the forward end to insert the gooseneck in the mast stub. With or without the weight of the sail on the boom you might even manage to get the boom aboard singlehanded if done carefully with padding if necessary to aviod damage to topsides. With the boom stabilized fore and aft you can then take your time in wrestling the foot of the mainsail in the boom track, if not already done, and the slugs into the mast stub. Once the mainsail foot and luff slugs are inserted you can then deal with the mainsail head, gaff track, and gaff gooseneck. If you have an extra pair of hands to assist the job is easier. I usually use techniques more suitable for "old salt" singlehanded accomplishment.

capt_nemo

[ontarioSuncat]

Hi, I leave the slugs on the mast, and use SS sail shackles to attach the sail to the slugs. In the Spring I raise the mast Raise the gaff 3 feet off the boom and leave the boom on the gallows. I tighten the lazy jacks to hold the gaff from swinging and the main sheet to keep the boom on the gallows. I slide the foot in the track, a helper makes this easier as one can feed and the other can pull. Next I slide the sail in the gaff track. There are 4 sail slugs and shackles to attach and this is easy to do now that the sail is bent on the boom and gaff. I haul up the Gaff as I attach each slug starting from the top. For the first two years I removed the mast hinge and this was a pain until the light bulb went off and I started taking apart the plastic sail shackles. Once they broke I bought 4 SS ones from West Marine.  Hope that helps.

[skip1930]

Raise the mast. Secure the boom to the mast. Hank on the headsail to the furler, slide the main into the boom and raise the main.

I'm sorry I mis understood. Thought we were talking about a CP-16 or 19 with a Marconi rig. skip.

[ontarioSuncat]

Skip must have the "modified" Suncat. Head Sail? Suncats don't have a mast slot to load sail slugs. So I leave the slugs on the mast.