By Joe –

As I sit here looking out my window at the snow falling, (6” so far and up to 10” expected) I am thinking about the upcoming sailing season. I find that I like to be prepared and have the boat ready to go early so there is no pressure as we approach launch day. We do have the distinct advantage and pleasure of having our boat in our own shop for the winter.

One of the things that we do every year is get our sails into the local sail loft for check and repair. The sailmakers pull the sails out of the bag and spread them out. They crawl all over the sails marking any chafed spots, broken stitching, small tears and the like. Then they repair any issues, reinforcing the chafed spots, and restitching any broken threads. They always replace the telltales when necessary and generally keep the sail in top shape. We also get our sails cleaned every few years.

This pre-season maintenance work may not prevent the catastrophic damage that can happen if the sheet is caught during a tack or a mainsail gets badly flogged during a squall. But more often, especially for sails that are used primarily for cruising and day sails, catastrophic failures are not nearly as common as the sail just getting older and the wear mounting until the sail fails on a perfect day!

The net gain here is that the sails are always in good shape. I have been a sales rep for the local sail loft for more than 30 years and I find that my customers who treat their sails this way will get additional life out of them. The same has been true in my experience with my own boats, and is true for both racers and cruisers. To some degree, it’s like changing the oil on your car. Regular maintenance finds small problems and addresses them before they become big problems. We are confident that our sails are in good shape every time we use them.

I think the most important part of this concept is to get this work done in the winter when the sailmakers have time to really do a good job. If you wait till spring, you will be disappointed that it is going to take 2 or 3 weeks to get the work done simply because of the backlog in the loft. You may even miss the nicest day of sailing in the spring because you did not anticipate that the loft would be busy come spring time.

By having our sails serviced every winter, we have never missed a day of sailing because a sail failed during the season. But as a sales rep for the loft, I can tell you it happens to others all the time! There is nothing worse than being out sailing on that perfect day and have the genoa start to come apart because there were some broken stitches that continued to pull along the seam until the seam opened up. That kind of failure is completely preventable. I find that my sailing days are too precious to let slip away that way.

So find a local loft, give them a call and make a plan to drop your sails for a check and repair. Just like cleaning and lubricating your genoa blocks and your traveler, this move will make sailing more safe, fun and save some $ in the long run. And best of all, it is another excuse to talk about sailing in the middle of winter!