"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
...

"Scotty" w@u wrote in message
. ..
Ed, it is good advice to tie an extra line around a RF sail
when leaving the boat for a while. Many, many, many (
Many,many,many) sails that have been shredded could have
been saved.

Scotty


Not a single hank-on sail has been shredded because they are removed and
stored below. That's the way sails are supposed to be taken care of. Not
wound up around the head stay and out in the elements when not being used.

Wilbur Hubbard

I am sure that many hank-on sails have been lost overboard because when you
are changing jibs you have to release all the hanks and the sheets before
you can put the old sail down the hatch. Then you have to get the new sail
up, take it out of the bag and get it hanked on while it is trying escape
overboard through the lifelines. Then you have to collect the sheets, which
by this time will have blown oout of reach and fix them back on. finally you
are ready to hoist. All very fine if you have a fit young foredeck hand to
do it for you.
It is a totally different story if you are short handed. With just my wife
as crew I have had the experience of unhanking a jib in the middle of the
English Channel in darkness with the boat doing 8 knots downwind and,
despite that, still showing 45 knots of apparent wind on the indicator from
dead aft. I was sitting by the forestay as it was impossible to stand and
water was being shovelled aboard up to my waist. I had a job to stop the jib
going overboard but finally got it below plus gallons of water into the fore
cabin. There was no way I was going to try and get another jib up in those
conditions.
So now I have a roller jib and I suspect that if you had experienced those
conditions you would change too.