It´s winter season now and I guess most of you sailing guys have already put their boats to the dry, have winterized it properly, eagerly awaiting the new spring. In this, I am sure you´ve done everything to ensure that the boat is kept dry (at least inside) and safe. But what about your sails? Are they still on board? Have you packed them away into their sails-bags and put them to your home, maybe into the basement? Yesterday I was at Quantum Sails Germany headquarter again and by chance picked up a pretty interesting topic: The need for professionally winterizing the sails cloth of a sailboat. I found this amazing, so here´s what I´ve learned.
The time skippers usually care the most about their sails setup is when they buy their boat. As seen in the picture above, the choice between different brands and the variety of different sail cloths, materials is huge. I know it because I´ve sold many boats myself and for my own new boat I had to make this decision as a buyer as well. Usually – which is sad – skippers don´t care all-too much after delivery of their new boat for the sails. Unless, of course, the sails are damaged or worn down. But there indeed is a time in between. There are years between purchase and replacement. And this is mostly wasted due to negligence of the chances of prolonging the service life and performance of the sails.
Looking the pros over their shoulders
Bennet, sailmaker at Quantum Germany, shows me around and explains how it works. The guys currently have their annual „winter check-up“-season started so frequently customers arrive at the loft, or the DHL guy rings, delivering the big packs of stuffed sails. Bennet smiles as he tells me: „Sailors should put more love into their sails“ and I will later understand why his heart as a thorough craftsman sailmaker bleeds – in the face of so mut negligence, flippency and pure ignorance. „You wouldn´t believe what I have seen here over the years!“
To make long things short: As a sailmaker Bennet suggests that any skipper winterizes the sails the same way his boat is put to winter-sleep. Simply taking off the sails and throwing them in a dark basement does not do the trick: Sails can (and will) start to develop mildew and could rot, rodent and other creatures could damage the sails. But also moisture, freezing temperatures and such – the basement may not be a suitable place. As well as the boat´s fender lockers. „Best would be to bring the sails to your local sailmaker“, Bennet suggests: „Most sailmakers offer a check and repair-service along thorough, dry and appropriate storage of the sails.“ He further notices that, facing the high budgetary invest into proper sails he simply cannot understand why so many sailors simply don´t seem to care for the precious garments afterwards.
UV-damage, chafe and fissues: A sail´s hardship
We unpack one of those customer´s packages. It´s a Genoa, apparently from a bigger boat around to 48-50 feet. The sail, as Bennet points out, is some three years old. A simple tri-radial Dacron sail from a sailing school. The daily use by newcomers (we all know what kind of hard life a training vessel sometimes has to endure) makes this sail prone to show me the normal issues, the usual wear-and-tear of a sail over time. The utilization of this sail by a sailing school may have accellerated the process or wearing it down. „Can you see the dark stripe running alonge the full length of the leech?“, he asks me. I look closer …
Yes, I can see it! Bennet tells me that this is in fact how UV-damage looks like over time. I´ve never seen it this way before and always thought that the power of the sun will bleach out any colors and will turn them into a yellowish tone, but apparently, UV-damage, at least on Dacron, looks like a shadow. We kneel besides the leech and look closer: The surface of the sail appears kind of „dried“ out, brittle. Many sews along the leech are already frazzling: A warning signal to every sailor!
Along the reefing points, where the sail is equipped with protection patches, also along the batten-pockets, he shows me even more wear and tear. A lot of chafing, where at some places the material strength is so very thin that I could pop my finger through with ease. Where the sails are rubbing at the spreaders, the damage is most dramatic with some areas looking like the worn-down (but favorite) socks of my kids: Holes! For this Genoa it was high time to being delivered to Bennet´s part time custodial care. Why? Because if a seam fails, a sail rips apart, this can result in some real trouble. Of which a snafued regatta is the mildest, injury of the crew the more serious outcomes.
Nothing escapes the eagle eye …
„Best is“, Bennet tells me, „when you take down the sails for the winter time, you just bring them to your sailmaker.“ We unroll another foresail of a Dehler 38, a nice laminate sail. Apparently, this skipper did it the way Bennet wishes all would do: I can see a lot of repairs – dark patches all over the place. Bennet kneels down and thoroughly, like in slow motion, he crawls from top to foot and checks the the whole sail, from leech to luff. „There´s good repairs and bad ones too, though“, he says and points to the patches.
A good sailmaker will always use the very material of the sail he has to work on. Those black patches not only look ugly – meaning, like „patches“ – they can also if made of a different material as the sail is made of, cause other trouble as well. The material properties of sail and patch must match, like the tensile forces for example and also adhesive properties. He points to a long, grey patch running along the sail number: „That´s one of our patches from two years ago“, he says: „Same material, not visible from a few meters. This is how you do it.“ And not by a cheap anybody, I conclude the sentence. Why do people save on the very engines of their boats so much?
In this, the sailmakers, if professional, mind well, can repair almost all damages a sail can suffer from. It is best, of course, to have weak points marked, checked and corrected before the very damage sets in. But if shit hits the fan, there´s almost nothing a god sailmaker cannot do. Bennet shows one problem child like this: A Code 0 that has a seriously gaping rip, some two meters directly at the cleat.
The small and the big: Almost all can be repaired
Apparently, the laminate sail cloth had been ruptured alonge the force line at some two meters. Certainly not a pleasant situation when something like this happens: I remember quite vividly how – of course during a night time sail – the main sail of a Pogo 40 S ruptured along a batten and the very batten was catapulted out of the heavily flagging ruptured sail, zipping by my ear narrowly missing my face. These are incredible forces! So, the owner of this sail might have got a big time shock at least when the Code 0 cracked open. We kneel besides the rupture.
I´ve never seen Carbon-fibers of a sail outside of the laminate they had been baked into. It´s very interesting: Always thinking that these fibers would be hardened or made to be stiff in some sort, that´s not the case at all! The fibers, as Bennet confirms, are „baked“ in between the layers of the laminate, but not made solid. So, the fear of somehow breaking the fibers when reefing or taking down such a sail is baseless, which is good news. Another misconception cleared. But back to the sail: Can such a severe damage be repqired anyway?
„Yes, of course!“, says Bennet: „That is the magic we can do. In this case, it is not an easy task and it will certainly not a bargain, but it´s of course way better and cheaper to have it repaired than to throw it away and get a brand new Code 0.“ In the end, he explains to me, the whole panel section of the sail will have to be taken out of the sail, a very time consuming procedure that needs meticulous efforts and sure instincts. Then a new panel is glued and sewed to the sail, also, with a lot of care. „In the end, we don´t want to have the repairworks being visible and, much more important, the repairs cannot add a new weak point to the sail at the same location where the old damage has been.“ And here is where quality and craftsmanship comes into play.
The fascinating craftmanship of a sailmaker
Sails are an expensive part of the boat. Good sails can take up a nice budget. Somehow, many sailors are reluctant to pay for good quality. I know some guys who even ordered their sails online from some far eastern digital company offering sails for absolute dumping prices. „No consultation, no personal experience, nobody to give you advice nor any counseling. It´s a plague!“ And I can fully understand Bennet´s grudge: As I was once a race biker, it was the same with cheap online bikes, ordered and paid by online for competative prices, but then these guys came to see the local bike shops for the 7.50 bucks puncture repairs …
At least here at Quantum Sails they employ real professional craftsmen, they have their next generation in form or apprentices and offer a wide range of sheer endless exprience, expertise and know how. Standard sails off the rack, made by some faceless no-name China-brand, produced by nameless people of questionable skills in unknown factories … that´s not what sailing should be about. „Fifty percent of a sail´s budget sits in the expert knowledge and the individual counseling of every single client“, Bennet says. Vice versa the repairs: This simply cannot be done by anyone who half heartedly sits in front of any sewing machine. Even these things are highly specialized equipment …
He shows me (well, in fact, he shows Zoé, the apprentice) how one of those sewing machines works. Fascinating! Have you known that Ferrari Mario is to commercial sewing machines what Gottifredi Maffiolo is to running rigging? High-class precision machines, driven by powerful air-compressors, capable of stitching a variety of strong load-bearing seams, utilizing special materials in many variants. This is know-how. This is craftsmanship – and this is the love and dedication of a passionate sailmaker like Bennet. You simply don´t get this online.
And this is how I understood that winterizing your sails will not only keep them dry, mould-free and safe stored away. The sails are thoroughly checked, if needed repaired. They are cleaned, freed of any residue chemicals that come onto the surface by rain and spray, dried and put away – its a matter of increasing the service life of a sail, of prolonging the performance level and of prevention of damage, material fatigue and loss due to unnoticed wear and tear. Maybe you give it a shot? Support your local sailmaker – cash in on more and longer fun with your precious sails cloth.
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