Rolling Furler Cover

[Casey]

Thanks in advance to all who respond.

The 3 long zippers of my 6 year old sunbrella rolling furler cover have broken. Is it cheaper to have the zippers replaced or buy a new cover? The fabric appears to be in good shape.

Casey


Good Winds Karma

[Sloop John B]

Casey, I don't know the answer. I do know that sail shops charge a small fortune for the big plastic zippers and their 'labor'. Best to check with as many lofts as you can locate, and shouldn't cost to much to mail the thing.

P.S. I sent my mate down to the sailmaker with a pawn shop Montgomery Ward tent because the Haband type fly zipper parted. She got the zipper all right, four times what the tent cost!

[Chip Hindes]

Does your wife or an aquaintance have a sewing machine? The zippers are available from sailrite.com for $12/ea, thread for $4.50.

My wife made both our furler and mailsail covers from Sailrite kits on our home Singer. Based on our experience, replacing the zipper is not that diffucult, but it is fairly time consuming; I'd guess at least a couple hours. You'd have to decide whether it's worth it, but then if you weren't fundamentally cheap like me, you probably wouldn't be asking the question

You can download the kit instructions from the Sailrite website.

[mike]

Because I am lazy, and because my wife is even lazier, I sought an alternative to the "hoist it up" RF cover (not to mention the fact that our zippers too are in need of replacement). I began inquiring about the sunbrella covers sewn on to the sails of most boats at our marina, and was told that while it is indeed very convenient (just roll the sail in, and it's covered), the weight of the material can adversely affect sailing performance.

Talking to a sailmaker a few days ago, I was shown an alternative... instead of the heavy sunbrella material, a much lighter sacrificial material is used (it is self-adhesive, but they sew it in too). She said this will not last as long as sunbrella (2 - 3 years perhaps), but it will not hurt performance nearly as much.

My genoa is there now having this cover material added... total cost was about $230.

--Mike

[richandlori]

Mike,

Let us know how that lighter material looks and how it affects the sail. It would be great to have an alternative to the hoisting "sock" and the heavy sunbrella material.

Thanks

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

A perspective from a southerner:

Our Florida sun is so brutal that it just plain wouldn't be worth the money to get some sort of material that only lasts a couple of years. Sunbrella will probably last 10+ years down here although you may have to get it restitched once or twice. I had my sun cover stitched on with Endura thread which will hopefully last the full 10 years that the fabric will.

As for the extra weight on the sail, this only applies to super light wind sailing...something that I am usually bored to tears to do. I won't usually even hoist a sail until the wind is at least 8-9 mph and I think at those wind speeds and above, the extra weight on the sail won't make any difference.

The cost of my sunbrella sailcover last year was about $175 not including the Endura thread which I bought separately and intend to use for all my exposed canvas work.