sail maintenance

do most ai sailers wash down the sail after every use in saltwater , i am guilty of not doing it every time , does the salt act as an abrasive on the fabric and what is the end result , should the black batten ends be glued to the batten

I give my sail a bit of a wash if it gets wet otherwise I only wash it down every couple of trips.

I lost one of the little black batten holders and had to make one out of nylon webbing. I guess a small amount of glue or something similar would be a good idea.

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I wash them about every 3-4 trips, unless there's a lot of spray, then I try to wash before putting away, depending on how much wind where we're washing.

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Hobie Island Sailing since 2006

In 2+ yrs, I have never washed my sail. I probably don't get a lot of spray on it, although we do have some windy days. I do wash all metal items thoroughly and compulsively. I lube the drive after it is washed and dried. I compulsively clean the twist-n-seal hatch cover's gasket and lube it w/ silicone grease. Keeping these hatch covers free of sand and dirt, and lubing the gasket with silicone grease, is absolutely necessary if these hatch covers are to be relatively leak-free.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

If you wash it in fresh water be sure to make sure its 100 dry if your bagging it and not going to use it for a while otherwise it will get moldy and the dacron/stitching might suffer. You can put a damp salty sail away and it wont grow any mold, but still thats not so nice either. Also a dried out salty sail will attract moisture...

I wash my sail once (I actually use shampoo and then rinse it out!) at the end of the season...then I leave it to hang for a day or so before packing it up. If its got wet when sailing I will unfurl the sail with the mast still upright on the boat when I come to shore....so it dries out but I never wash it down in fresh water. The only problem with my sail is that after 3 years its starting to 'bag out' a bit. I noticed a little more leach flutter so I made a new bottom batten thats a bit stiffer than the rods that come with the sail, doesnt back/flutter so much now AND it will still twist around the mast when I furl. But the sails definitely stretched a bit, not suprising. No cracks in the monofilm YET but I put that down to the climate monofilm more malleable in the heat, more brittle in the cool, brittle flogging monofilm will crack more readily....I believe.

Windsurf sail experience over the years..... Before there was any rack at my local w/s beach I would religiously wash de-rig and roll my sails up after every session...They never lasted very long....now I just hang the whole lot in the shade, (de tensioned of course) no washing, in a rack (basically 2 goal posts that hold about 10 sails) and they last a lot longer.

All of the above personal experience only. you will probably do much more damage to your sail sailing reefed than you ever will thru not washing.

Thats a good Hobie reminder, I got warned when posting that someone else had just submitted a reply. Chekika I am absolutely with you on the washing down front other than the silicone grease, dont like the sound of GREASE!!!! I use a silicone spray, but the gaskets still get out of alignment and twist out

When I get back to the beach at the sailing club, I uses the hose to give the sail a good wash whilst it is still on the AI and unfurled. I give everything a good rinse and then head to the bar for an hour or so to let it dry before putting it away.

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Either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!

Salt water rules: Only rinse what you want to keep!

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“Remember life is short- eat dessert first.”
The world is 70% water – So that means we should spend 70% more time sailing than mowing lawns!
Larry

LOL, that's a pretty good rule.

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Cowsgomoo;

It was the first rule I learned. Every one I can remember had pain to go with it! Like "Don't forget your paddle".

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“Remember life is short- eat dessert first.”
The world is 70% water – So that means we should spend 70% more time sailing than mowing lawns!
Larry

The worst thing you can do is leave your sail/mast bungee'd to your roof racks or trailer for any longer than necessary, this causes crimps which look bad and eventually become cracks in the tranparent section.

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Fair Skies, Max.