Class Legal Sail Clips

TCBarnes

New Member
From the class rules:

The sail shall not be attached to the spars by anything other than line and/or Builder supplied sail clips.

So, only clips from Laser Perf. are legal? Not the various other sunfish clips? And if I buy clips elsewhere to support a local racing retail store, how do I determine whether they originated at Laser Perf?
 
Sunfish Sail Rings (Pkg 30) $26 for sail clips

Or just attach it with line.
img0213_023-outhaul-clew-area.jpg
 
If you are going to race and concerned with Class rules, seems like most of the racers go with thin Dyneema to tie on the sail. Skip the rings. You'll be asking about cunninghams and outhauls next.
 
Sunfish Sail Rings (Pkg 30) $26 for sail clips

Or just attach it with line.
img0213_023-outhaul-clew-area.jpg
Thanks - Dyneema is what I'm currently using but not entirely satisfied with sail set. How much breathing room do you leave between sail and spar? Loosening has helped in my case, especially on the gaff, but it seems clips with set-it;forget-it functionality would be the simple solution.
 
A few years ago I switched from the plastic sail attachment clips to very thin Spectra (sp?) lines tied so the sail was the same distance from the boom and gaff as the plastic clips allowed and I am a convert. In light air, the clips tend to hang up from tack to tack and distort the shape of the sail - the ties do not hang up. The sail sets better in all wind conditions. This year I rigged up a new race sail and moved the grommets a little closer to the boom/gaff
with equally good results. No more clips for me for racing. I also cut the ends close to the know and then put a little dab of epoxy to keep the knots from coming undone

However: I am also a fan of light duty cable ratchet straps for non-racing applications. They are cheap, crazy easy to install and plenty strong. I just rigged a rec. sail with 20 of these ratchet ties for a cost of under $2 and installation time of about 5 minutes.

Alan Glos
 
However: I am also a fan of light duty cable ratchet straps for non-racing applications. They are cheap, crazy easy to install and plenty strong. I just rigged a rec. sail with 20 of these ratchet ties for a cost of under $2 and installation time of about 5 minutes.

Picking up this thread...
Mr. Glos, I'm looking to replace my rather old looking sail ties and found your post. I'm just not sure what these ratchet ties look like. Can you please point me to a link or otherwise indicate what I'd be asking for? Thanks!
 
Yes, cable ties, zip ties as shown in tag's photo, Any decent hardware store stocks them, They were originally designed to tidy up electrical
wire bundles (hence "cable" ties) but people use them or all kinds of unrelated purposes. just like duct tape.

Alan Glos
 
Zip ties brilliant!!!!
So cheap, just cut to remove the sail, I will be doing this. I don’t have enough garage space so I removed my sail in the winter. This will make next season sail install a breeze.
 
Ok, thanks all. I recently used a couple of those to tidy up my trailer wiring. Brilliant indeed! A lot to be said for the simplicity and cost effectiveness. I'll just have to figure out the optimal size for the "rings."

A few years ago I switched from the plastic sail attachment clips to very thin Spectra (sp?) lines tied so the sail was the same distance from the boom and gaff as the plastic clips allowed and I am a convert. In light air, the clips tend to hang up from tack to tack and distort the shape of the sail - the ties do not hang up. The sail sets better in all wind conditions.

Have you found that the zip ties work better than the plastic sail clips normally used, as far as the way the sail hangs in light air?
 
Cheapie ties work too. Spectra isn't really needed in my opinion. A short section of cheap stuff isn't going to have noticeable stretch....in my opinion again.
 
Yes, cable ties, zip ties as shown in tag's photo, Any decent hardware store stocks them, They were originally designed to tidy up electrical
wire bundles (hence "cable" ties) but people use them or all kinds of unrelated purposes. just like duct tape.

Alan Glos
I keep a couple of zip ties in my float box on the boat. Very handy for quick field repairs for various things on the boat.
 
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