One of the quickest ways to estimate if your sails are worn
out is to have someone in another boat take some photos of you sailing. Make sure that the photos show the
sails. Close-hauled or close-reaching
probably reveal the most information.
Look closely at the sails in the photos.
Wrinkles in the sail cloth often indicate that the cloth has
stretched. This stretching reduces the
efficiency of the sails and can contribute to excessive heeling, slow
performance and an inability to point close to the wind.
Take a look at these two photos. Notice the wrinkles in the sails. Wrinkles that radiate from the clew corner of
a sail indicate that the sail cloth has stretched to the point that the outhaul
control line for the main sail and the sheet for the jib will not smooth out
the sail.
Are there wrinkles that parallel the leach? The sail cloth near the leach has stretched
so much that the battens no longer support the leach. The leach may even be curved over one way or
the other (hooked).
Wrinkles that are perpendicular to a sail’s luff can
sometimes be smoothed out with halyard tension or with a Cunningham or
downhaul. Wrinkles perpendicular to the
sail’s foot can often be smoothed out with the clew outhaul (mainsail) or sheet tension (jib).
The sails in the last photo look smooth and wrinkle
free. These sails will drive the boat
efficiently on all points of sail and give the best windward performance.
barnaclebillholcomb@gmail.com
509 993 3214
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