Hi!

I'm wondering about how to best or easiest way to fold my sails for storage. When I beach the cat for the day, I furl the jib around the forestay temporarily and let the fully battened mainsail down. The jib has only a few battens in it. I have to unfurl and take off the jib to unstep the mast. I refurl it in the opposite direction as I'm letting it down, but it gets too big for me. So I end up folding the furled jib a few times so it's only 6' long.

The main is much easier. It sort of accordions on itself as it's let down. I just pick it up as it is and store it that way.

So my main concern is with the lazy way I do the jib. Will this damage the sail? Is there an easier, one-man way to do this?

Thanks,
Danno

Are you folding the furled jib?

That's something I would not have done, avoid sharpe creases like the plague
Generally, today's high performance cloths dont like folding, and especially not repeated folding at the same spots. If the sail have a very soft cloth, it might be OK.

We roll our sails from the bottom up, starting at a convenient batten. Then it's very easy and fast to hoist them again next time. Dont know how this can best be done with your furling system..

Folding bad, Like rolf siad creases in sail fabric are your enemy, Intretingly enough, I roll mine from the top down, this means I have o unroll ir to find the head to hoist, but i think it stays together better. Eeryone does things there own way.

Thanks, Josh and Rolf.

I'll see about rolling it. I only have a little subie legacy sedan to transport it in. Should build a cat box, but probably won't be this summer. Would it be okay to cram it in the car after sailing, then uncram it and roll it for storage at home? Then cram/fold it again to get into the car for the trip back to the water?

All of this has been about the jib. Least that's what I've been thinking. Do you roll the battened main too?

yeah, i roll both sails, and I just roll the jib up inside the main. If you can fint the main in your car someway the way you've been doing it then maybe you can fit it this way.

We always roll both sails, and we always roll them from the bottom up. That way, you dont have to remove the top battens if it's only for short term storage.
If you are storing the main for some longer time, you should remove all battens anyway to stop them from becoming twisted and then it doesn't matter which way you roll it.
We prefer to roll them separately, as we sail 2-up, easier and faster to rig that way.

Just stuffing the sails into the car and rolling them later isn't something I would have done.

Having a sailbox on your trailer, or secured under your boat really speeds rigging time and it's less hassle to get on the water. Before we got our trailer, we stored the sails at home, and it's so much more convenient to store them close to the boat.

Always roll my sails up; I've found it is worth expirementing as to how to do it.

The Inter 17 sail rolls best when you fold (and I don't like folding modern sails) it at the 3rd batten (having taken the top one out) and then roll top to bottom; I try and ensure that I fold alternate ways and sometimes use 4 batten down. The first Hurricane mainsail was better rolled from the bottom, but my second one was better rolled from 3rd batten down.

Also agree that isa sail is to be stored for a long time, take the battens out.

Thanks, guys :-)

I had been rolling the jib along the luff, which makes it too long to fit into my car. I'll look into rolling it along the foot, like the main could be done. Since it's a furling jib, there is a batten or two oriented along the forestay, but they're not real big.

I've also got a Force 5 storm sail that I got last year 2nd hand. It came folded very neatly in its bag. I've only opened it once for inspection, then refolded it as before. Creases are very obvious. The seller made a point of this as proof of little use. Should I take this out and roll it too?

Here is a good way to roll the jib. Get a piece of plastic pipe, drill holes in each end and tie line in each hole. Then tie one line to the tack of the jib, and other line is tied to the clew. Now just roll the sail up on the pipe.

For the main, I usually start with a middle batten and roll it. The batten then acts much like the pipe for the jib.
Rick

Thanks, Rick :-)

That's how I've stored my F5 sail. I sorta knew I was a bad boy for the way I've handled the cat sails, but needed to confess, I guess. For penance, I'm heading to Lake Whatcom now. First time my 15 year old son will be going with me. I guess he tired of video games ;-)

The only time we sailed on Lake Whatcom, it was kind of LIKE a video game. Long, narrow, north-south lake. At the north end the wind blew from the north, and at the south end the wind blew from the south, and halfway down the lake the wind didn't blow at all. I hope it isn't always like that -- or maybe that it IS always like that so at least it is predictable.

I use plastic pipe for the jib but I have shock cord at the ends with plastic hooks. The pipe only works with jib battens that are 90' to the leach. If yours are at 45' you have to fold and roll.

Thanks, Mike and Mary.

Yeah, Lake Whatcom is sorta like that. Posted a map of where I sail, both the lake and in the islands.