Sail Care

Look after your sails, and they’ll look after you.

- Peter Nielsen

Dacron sailcloth has two natural enemies—sunlight and chafe, both of which are found in abundance on the typical sailboat.

There is not much you can do to stave off damage from ultraviolet light except to keep the mainsail covered between excursions and make sure the sacrificial strip on the leech and foot of a furling genoa is in good shape.

Chafe is another matter. Anything that stands proud of the sailcloth— such as stitching—is susceptible to wear as soon as it comes in contact with anything else, be it cloth, rope, wire or metal. Often, chafe goes largely unnoticed until the damage is done. If you have your sails valeted each fall your sailmaker will have found and repaired any damage; if not, it’s easy enough to inspect your sails yourself.

If possible, spread the sail out on a clean artificial surface—not on your lawn, as it’ll pick up dirt and grit—but if you’re on your boat, drop the mainsail out of its track and pull it over the boom bit by bit. Here’s what to look for.

Broken or worn stitches: Even a few broken stitches can quickly become a great many broken stitches—and possibly a luff-to-leech tear. You shouldn’t be able to see daylight through any of the seams. If you’re not much of a seamstress you can plead with your local loft to make the repair, but don’t count on them having the time to do it at the start of the season when most of them are extremely busy.

Sailcloth: Check anything that regularly comes in contact with wire or metal or rope—reef patches, batten pockets, the foot of the genoa where it passes over the lifelines. The mainsail is especially vulnerable, bearing as it does on the knifelike trailing edges of the spreaders when sailing downwind, and also on the shrouds.