Winter Storage of Sails

[Pgutierrez]

Winter Storage of Sails
We sail Pente on the upper Mississippi River, Lake Pepin, 75 miles SE of Minneapolis.  January - February temperatures get as low as -25 to -30 F.   Boat is stored on jack stands outdoors.  In previous years I have always winter stored sails at home.  This year am considering leaving the jib up, very tightly furled. Main sail might be stored on the boat.  Jib is original to the boat (15 years old), blue sunbrella cover is in good shape.  Sails had minor repairs done last winter and both are in excellent shape.  I would leave multiple wraps on furled jib so it wouldn't become lose.  We have never had issues with rodents getting in boat. 
​Any really strong reasons why not go through the effort and ritual of taking down jib and storing sails in doors?  Pros:  Save lots of time in the fall and in spring commissioning. 

—
peter g

C36, MK2, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful ! ! !.   5 th Catalina

[Dave Spencer]

I just returned from lifting our boat out and winterizing her in preparation for the long winter on the shores of Georgian Bay.  I can't imagine leaving a jib on its furling over the winter no matter how tightly it's furled or how many wraps you put on it.  May I suggest that you take the 30 minutes or so that it takes to drop and fold a sail to protect your investment.   I bring my sails home for the winter but I know others who leave their sails aboard with no obvious detrimental effects... but leaving it on the furling makes little sense to me. 

[tommyt]

Let's see. A Minn. winter, snow, wind, cold, wind, and 30 minutes to pull the genoa is a lot of work? On a bad day it would take 30 minutes to drop the sail and 30 minutes to raise it. A new sail, which you may need anyway after 15 years, will cost you a couple of thousand. One hours work, $2K? You do the math.

[Jeff Kaplan]

I always take my main and genoa off for the winter and take them to Doyle Sails for cleaning and check over, free winter storage.  Pick up in spring. I would never leave the sails on the boat, anything could happen, and as mentioned on the above post, sails are very costly to replace. Spend a few moments and remove the sails.

[Ron Hill]

Pgut : NOT a good idea to leave sails stored on the outside of the boat.  For all the reasons that Dave mentioned.
Also you can have a rain - then a freeze, thaw, freeze - Not a good idea.  Takes but a few minutes to take down the jib and store it below.

A thought

[Ted Pounds]

The yard where we stored our boat would not allow sails to be left on.  If the Jib ever unfurls the boat will probably tip over...     No matter how tightly you wrap it there are no guarantees.  The only sure way to prevent a problem is to take the sails off. 

[Ralph Masters]

Here in San Diego our winter storage plans calls for unfurling the sails on a weekly bases and "airing" them out for 6 - 8 hours.

Ralph

[kwaltersmi]

Take 'em down and store them indoors. It's relatively quick/easy compared to other winterizing tasks and it's a good opportunity to inspect your sails, furler and other associated rigging.

[Ted Pounds]

Here in San Diego our winter storage plans calls for unfurling the sails on a weekly bases and "airing" them out for 6 - 8 hours.

Ralph

I hate you.   

[Pgutierrez]

Thanks to all for your thoughts and suggestions.  For what it's worth, yesterday we had a record high of 88° on the upper Mississippi. Wind started out as a nothing and then scaled up to 25 mph.  Hit 6.5-7 knots most of run from Maiden Rock / Stockholm to the mouth of the river below Pepin.  Overnight winds and today 40-50 mph.  No one left the harbor.  Ahh, one more gasp of the dissapearing summer.
And I heard all of you loud and clear.  Took both sails down.  Even though jib had been repaired earlier this summer, I found the upper third of sunbrella needed to be re sewed.  A little time last fall 2015 saving big amounts of time and hassle in summer of 2016.   Thanks for your input.