[oysterman23]

Windwitch received her new sails from North this afternoon and I'll be bending them on and checking them out tomorrow. Its exciting! Boy they sure feel alot different than the ones Ive used on her till now! Any way the foresail is furled so no issue but the main...any tips for flaking the first time around to get it behaving right at the start? Warnings and admonitions ?
Tia....

 

[Stumble]

Take the time to get the batten tension correct before doing anything else. Depending on the way they slot in be careful. I have seen more than one new sail with a fresh hole punched in the leech thanks to being overly agressive trying to get new battens slotted in.

Assuming the sail was flaked properly from the factory they normally flake on the boom pretty well the first time. After that... Well good luck.

 

[PaulinVictoria]

Let it stretch out over a few sails before going mad on sheeting, leach line adjustment etc, it will take a bit of breeze to get the sail to settle its designed shape. Batten pocket tension (as above) is important, as is halyard tension.
As soon as it's on the boat, it become a second hand sail
Enjoy, nothing like a new sail to give an old boat a new lease of life.

 

[SHNOOL]

Yep, take your time with the battens...
It'll (main) likely fold along the same lines it shipped when you drop it, if that works for you then no worries, otherwise just take your time folding it.

Follow proper raising procedure on the main... Loose mainsheet/vang/cunningham, raise to black band, once its up, cleat it off, then tension cunningham/downhaul, then vang, finally mainsheet. It will take a bit to settle in, so the downhaul might need adjusted after a bit of sailing.

 

[RichH]

What's the sail material, makes a big difference in the way you raise and 'set' them?

The generic rule is to bring a stitched sail up slowly (several usages) to their designed tension, so that the fabric and stitching can slowly self adjust, equilibrate and minor stretch-out to its designed shape.

For the mainsail if woven dacron does it have a boltroped luff or taped luff? ... makes a big difference in the way you raise them and includes how much halyard tension (luff pre-load) should be applied so that you arrive at correct shape ... the point (fore/aft) at which the maximum draft occurs.
Ditto on tape luff jibs/genoas - how much luff 'hollow' was cut into the sail, so that you can 'match' the tension in forestay so that the wire sag matches that 'luff hollow' shape.

Easier to do if you have the 'numbers' that the sail loft used to cut the sail.

 

[SHNOOL]

He has a Morgan 24.
Likely Dacron, likely sail slugs, and he asked about the main. His genoa is furled.

 

[mitchbrown]

i have a new 8 oz Dacron and it is quite stiff and difficult to flake on the boom. Also it is quite slippery and the flakes want to slide off of each other. May take a second look at lazy jacks.

 

[RichH]

If he knows the exact amount of length that the sailmaker CUT from the boltrope, he wont have to guess how much tension to put into the halyard for the sail to set to its 'as designed' shape.
If he knows the dimension of how much and exactly where that maximum dimension in that cut-away luff section occurs on that jib/genoa luff, he will precisely and more easily know how much backstay tension and maximum jib sheet tension to apply in all wind strengths that he encounters.

;-)

 

[SchockT]

A brand new sail should not need much halyard tension to achieve it's designed shape. It is not until it starts to get old and stretch that you end up having to start cranking on the halyard to pull the draft back to where it should be. Just throw all your "settings" you used on your old sails out the window...they no longer apply!

Treat your new sails with respect or they will age prematurely. If you can't be bothered to take your headsail off the furling when you put the boat away, then at least ease off the halyard tension. Same goes for the main...If you must leave it on the boom, ease the outhaul off!

If you are unsure if you are getting the most out of your new sails you could always take pics and show them to your sailmaker for feedback. heck, post them here too, so we can all admire them!

 

[oysterman23]

Well im glad I asked this question cause the advice is worth the tariff. Thanks for taking the time all. I will take it abit easy and watch the boat...and the cloth. It was my inclination to rig up asimple set of lazy jacks because it is a loose footed main and the sail cloth being as stff and slippery as it is it is likely to be a pia keeping it in order while soloing (almost always) I also think will likely want more mechanical advantage on the outhaul and may add a clam cleat before my horned cleat to give myself some security with the loose foot situation but again ...a test drive should reveal much..no sweat. Thanks again will get a couple pictures up this weekend

 

[SailRedemption]

If you bought your sails from North, shouldn't a North sailmaker in your area come and sail with you to teach you and make sure the new sail was properly cut and made?

On the CNC 34 I race on, when we had a new sail made the sailmaker sailed with us during a regatta. Maybe it's just the loft we have over here but I would assume it's worth looking/asking..

Good luck otherwise, a new sail sure is pretty when it's up!

 

[Ajax_MD]

Does your new jib have spreader reinforcement patches?

If not, get some immediately, before using the sail.
My crew managed to punch a spreader right through the leech of my genoa last night.

 

[RichH]

Guys, almost all woven dacron mainsails that are constructed with 'boltroped' luffs are constructed with that boltrope cut shorter than the as-designed luff dimension. This is called 'luff preload' to prevent overstretching and distortion of the luff especially in the higher wind ranges.
This 'preload', typically 99% of the time, is purposely cut shorter by approx. 1" for every 10-11 ft. of luff length. If that pre-load is not stretched-out by that approx. dimension after the sail is raised - the point at which the maximum draft occurs in the sail will be too far aft (weather helm), the leech will set 'too tight' (leech hooked up to weather) which will artificially increase the overall draft (high lift, low speed output, artificially increased heeling ... when beating). Most all woven dacron with boltroped mains are designed this way.

Laminate sails and sails with 'taped' luffs dont have this 'feature' and can be just raised 'as is' to arrive at the 'as-designed' or fixed shape. Woven dacron mainsails with boltropes (the most commonly found on 'cruising' boats) need to be additionally stretched along the luff after raising them ... by about 1" for every 10-11ft. of luff length OR one really needs to know from the loft approximately how much that 'pre-load' dimension was cut off from that boltrope when installed and then stretch-out the luff by that amount after raising it in order to have such a sail properly 'set' for sailing in 12-15kts. of wind. ;-)

 

[oysterman23]

Well weather permitted us to bend on the sails today and they fit nicely. I started laughing when we were trying to flake the sails to the boom bloody slippery stuff! Here come the lazy jacks! Will not see me without them out in 15 or 20 trying to place nice little layers in my mainsail pile thank yew. But god its nice to see what they are new and will find out about boltrope preload from North. It was painful to resist a test run but we went to work... battens were quite cooperative and I like the loose foot already.Thanks for the feedback