folding a laser sail

Don't do it with the battens still in. It's not good for the life of the sail. Take out the battens (easy and fast) then flake the sail. Your sail will thank you
 
Softshuffle,

Flaking is the method of folding the sail like a concertina - I was trying to find an illustration on the web but haven't found anything yet. If your sail has been folded in the past then it may still have the crease lines in it that might guide you. You would have to remove the battens to use this method. Your sail will last longer if you roll it but then it would obviously it takes up more room - so that may not be convenient for you,

hope that helps,

Nigel
 
Actually webmuppet, flaking the sails is a better way, it makes the sail last longer, the rolling makes hundereds of little creases, flaking just makes a few, also, rolling the sails tends to wear out the sail numbers faster
 
socalsailor said:
Actually webmuppet, flaking the sails is a better way, it makes the sail last longer, the rolling makes hundereds of little creases, flaking just makes a few, also, rolling the sails tends to wear out the sail numbers faster
Click to expand...

You're going to have a hard time getting lots of small boat OD champion sailors to believe that. J24, J22, Melges, JY15, Scotts, Thistle, especially laser sailors have been rolling sails for years. For the Laser you roll the sail around a 2" PVC pipe. It makes an excellent guide for do it yourself and there are NO creases. Every time you make a flake on a sail that is a crease and then when you FOLD a flaked sail that's number of creases times 4. I'm also lost on the logic of rolling wearing out sail numbers?
 
socalsailor said:
Actually webmuppet, flaking the sails is a better way, it makes the sail last longer, the rolling makes hundereds of little creases, flaking just makes a few, also, rolling the sails tends to wear out the sail numbers faster
Click to expand...

If folding a sail is so good, then why do sailors pay a premium to purchase a rolled Laser sail rather than a folded one ? I'm not suggesting that you are wrong, however, I've always been told that the best way of storing a Laser sail is to roll it around a plastic drainage pipe - have I been mislead ?

Nigel :confused:
 
Webmuppet said:
If folding a sail is so good, then why do sailors pay a premium to purchase a rolled Laser sail rather than a folded one ? I'm not suggesting that you are wrong, however, I've always been told that the best way of storing a Laser sail is to roll it around a plastic drainage pipe - have I been mislead ?

Nigel :confused:
Click to expand...

Sorry both, I did not know that you guys were doing it around drainage pipe, some people tend not to do that and that causes the little creases
 
socalsailor said:
Don't do it with the battens still in. It's not good for the life of the sail. Take out the battens (easy and fast) then flake the sail. Your sail will thank you
Click to expand...

Wouldn't dream of folding a sail. I've rolled every sail I've owned in any type of boat for the last 20 years and I never take the battens out. The sails are non-competitive long before there are any issues with the elastic in the batten pockets.
 
seconded - with a creasable cloth like dacron, rolling is king. You can flake other cloths without worry, but unless you want nasty lines down your sail...
 
roll, i believe its the best thing to do for the sail. fold the corner that attaches to the end of the boom over to the side with the battens, make sure all the battens are parallel. start folding from the wider end, when you get to a batten push down so the batten is flat going in and continue to roll doing the same with each batten. this is how i do it.
 
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