Shaggy Sails
29 October 2011 | Yakutat Bay, Alaska
Richard
Imvubu sailing ahead of Issuma (picture taken Oct 17).
The edges of the sails that are set on Issuma have tattered cloth hanging off them. The tattered cloth is the remnants of the ultraviolet protection cloth that is put on roller furled sails (so the sails are shielded from UV when they are furled). The cloth that is typically used for UV-protection on sails (sunbrella) has poor resistance to abrasion. The cloth has been abraded by rubbing against rigging wires when tacking. While the UV-protection cloth does need to be replaced (preferably with something more durable), one of the advantages of sailing in an area where it is cloudy and rainy most of the time is that there is hardly any UV around to damage things, so this repair can wait :).
I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to fix the UV-protection on these sails--I'd like to find a more durable cloth (maybe in black so it definitely blocks UV?) and probably glue it on (no stitches to get abraded away).