Jib Tear at Sheet Attachment

[TSWEST]

During a recent sailing trip, the metal ring in the jib where the sheets attach tore out of the jib. Does anyone have a recommendation on where to get this repaired? It's not a simple tear given where it's at. And because this jib is part of a furler, removing the jib will not be an easy task! I'll try and upload a photo, once i figure out how.

[sailboatmike]

Removing the jib from the furler should be as easy as undoing the furling halyard on the other side of the furler blade and pulling the jib down the track, of course the jib has to fully unfurled to complete this maneuver, and should take no longer than 5 minutes.

[grady]

What caused it to tear out? Sanged something? Just blew out in a gust? If it just blew out in a gust the sail may be rotten and not worth repairing.

[Tomfoolery]

During a recent sailing trip, the metal ring in the jib where the sheets attach tore out of the jib. Does anyone have a recommendation on where to get this repaired? It's not a simple tear given where it's at.

Should be an easy repair for a sail loft. But as grady pointed out, there must be a reason it blew out. A loft can inspect and advise.

And because this jib is part of a furler, removing the jib will not be an easy task!

Assuming the mast is up, tie a tailing line to the halyard (where it's presently tied off on the furler drum), or when you pull the sail down, you'll lose that end and have to drop the mast to tie on the tailing line. You need that tailing line to hoist the sail back up. That's assuming it's the Flexible Furler unit, not the more traditional style with the bearing attached to the halyard.

I'll try and upload a photo, once i figure out how.

Quickest way is to go to http://www.tinypic.com, and follow the instructions to upload a photo from your computer. No sign-up or account or anything. You have to answer a 'security question' every other upload (to fend off the bots), but that's about it. It returns four lines of url - use the one with the img and /img code at each end. Copy the entire line, and just paste it into your post, leaving a blank line before and after that line of code for best readability (it's really awkward to have a photo on the end of a line of text). Use the 'Preview' button to make sure it looks right. If it's a large photo, it will be reduced in the post, but clicking on it will open it up larger in another window or tab (depending on how your browser is set up).

Tinypic does slow my computer, as it stacks on advertising popups and animations and stuff, so as soon as I get the line of code copied from the tinypic site, I close those tabs and windows and things speed back up. It's annoying, but it's also free, so free wins.

I also use photobucket, which uses accounts and libraries and such, but it's gotten super slow, so I've been backing away from it. I just don't want to delete it, as I have old forum posts with photos that someone might want to see (like my images are so all-fired important ), and the photos would disappear if I emptied it, so I just let it sit there without adding more to it.

Oh, and you have to have some minimum number of posts before you can post photos, but you may have already exceeded that number.

[TSWEST]

The sail is 20 years old, though very well stored and maintained. No other indications of problems, but it's a good question - it could be simply old and drying out. There was nothing special going on at the time, the ring just tore out under normal wind conditions (~10-15mph). Thanks for the info, there's a company in New Orleans that might be able to help.

[Chinook]

Considering the age of the sail, I'd be more inclined to replace instead of repair. Once it starts, if the tear was due to brittleness or age in the sail, you're likely to experience additional tears in the future. Also, although dacron sails will hold together for a long time, and 20 years seems a very long time, that doesn't mean that they're still performing well. Dacron tends to stretch and lose its shape with use. The sail tends to "belly", and not take a good airfoil shape, especially when sailing close to the wind. Since it happens gradually, it's hard to notice. If you replace the sail, however, you can expect to see an immediate and dramatic improvement in how the boat sails.

[TSWEST]

Thanks for the guidance Tom, below is the photo. I communicated with North Sail out of New Orleans, I'm going to let them have a look before proceeding. I agree with everyone that the age of the sale may make a repair impractical, but I'd like to squeeze a bit more life out of it if i can, just to delay a large purchase at this time.

[Tomfoolery]

Zooming in, I can see many stitches have let go, probably from UV exposure weakening the thread. It also looks like a small metal ring for the clew, where mine has a large grommet, and the small ring is the tack fitting at the furler drum. I'm hardly an expert on sails (paging JudyB), but it looks like a relatively easy fix. I would also have the sail restitched, if it's not too far gone as far as being blown out goes.

My OEM working jib. Needs a cleaning, I guess. Or replacing.

[TSWEST]

That's exactly what North Sails identified, along with apparent shrinking of the leech cord.

[Tomfoolery]

I guess I know more than I think I do. Or something.

But seriously, I've had sails come apart from sun damage in the past. The worst was when the sun cover started peeling off on a sailing trip across Lake Ontario en route to Canada. It looked worse than it really was, but I couldn't tell way up there (bigger boat). It was UV damaged thread coming apart, but I rolled in the jib so I wouldn't rip it apart any worse. Slow with lousy pointing capability, and I was in the middle of the Lake. Not good. Lesson learned, by the way.

I'm in the process of replacing the vinyl 'windows' in my dodger (3 out of 4 completed), which is made considerably easier with the thread being badly weakened from UV. Two rows of stitching around the perimeter, so I'm ripping the outer seam (some cutting with a seam ripper, but mostly the thread just breaking), cutting back the old window so the inner seam just holds, stitching a new window around the outside, then ripping the inner seam to remove the window, cleaning it up, and restitching the inner seam.

Main point being, when the thread gets weakened like that, it'll come apart on its own. Which looks like what's happening to your sail. But as I said, it's just webbing and a little bit of the corner, all of which can be replaced pretty easily as these things go, especially for a sail loft. But the question remains, is it worth it on an old sail, especially since I'm betting the whole thing should probably be restitched? The big walking-foot machines the loft uses can really move, so it's not really that big of a job. But you might be into a third or half the cost of a new working jib, including the repair.

If you have a heavy home machine, you could probably do the work yourself. Maybe.

[Seapup]

I have not used one, but could try a $5 Jiffy grommet. Would probably work for temporary. If it doesn't work you are only out $5 and back where you are now.


http://www.sailrite.com/Jiffy-Grommet

[C Buchs]

I have not used one, but could try a $5 Jiffy grommet. Would probably work for temporary. If it doesn't work you are only out $5 and back where you are now.


http://www.sailrite.com/Jiffy-Grommet

This is a great item to have in the boat tool kit. I'll add it to my list of stuff to buy.

Jeff