most people feel a fresh water rinse, air dry and flake will extend the life of the spin. I usually do this but its a pain.. plus i live in an apartments so that means... in the bath tub... then hanging in my apt for 2 days. i have left my spin rigged also when i get lazy.

If you are flying a used spin and dont care to much about it i say leave it. if its new... and you love the crispyness... treat it well.

a trick i learned from an olympic cat sailer to spread out the patches for dousing is to use a nylon line ball after the first patch, and use a long (8-12") bowline knot at the top patch. this will help get the first patch in the sock without the second one right with it.

The ring post was: run the retrieval line through a plastic ring and tie a bungee cord from the ring to the clew. this will pull the sheets in with the spin. it is great for getting lines off your tramp and helps hide some extra retrieval line from your tramp. i ended up needing about 3' of bungee or i would have had to replace/increase my sheets. I figure .63 cents of extra bungee was better than new sheets for $40.