A full sail inventory for a 40-foot boat like the Fox is awkward to stow below decks, what with people actually living aboard 24/7/365. What to do? Most cruisers store at least some of the sails on deck, hopefully well covered. We chose that route for the staysail that hanks-on to our inner Solent stay, so in late 2005 I put together a sail sausage that ties to the forward starboard lifelines. Which ended somewhat suboptimally, in that the Sunbrella cover I made wraps around the staysail and the ends are sort of tucked in and made fast. Thus creating a staysail burrito.
I can't even remember how much fabric I used, but it was a lot. When laid on the salon floor, the almost-rectangular burrito fabric extended from inside the forward berth, through the salon, and into the galley area. I wanted to be sure that none of the staysail was exposed to sunlight when stored on the deck, so the burrito overlapped the girth of the furled staysail by about 6 inches. I cut the burrito's ends liberally so they, too, would overlap and cover the staysail ends completely. To sum up: I used a LOT o' Sunbrella for this project.
The only other ingredient in this burrito was webbing. I sewed 4 long pieces of webbing to the back of the burrito, evenly spaced, to tie the burrito around the staysail and compress it to the extent possible. On top of each of these 4 long webbing pieces, I sewed a second, short piece of webbing ("sail stop") to tie the staysail burrito to the boat's lifelines and stanchions.
Here are photos of the results, showing the partially-wrapped burrito, and how it rides on the foredeck, fully enclosing the staysail. It's ridden there for over 2 years and a few thousand miles, without complaint. Occasionally we need to re-wrap the burrito as it shifts during our travels, and we tied the tucked-in ends of the burrito with some spare sail ties to better prevent salt water penetration while underway. I may need to re-sew the thread on the webbing at some point as the sun and salt deteriorate it, but otherwise the burrito seems to serve our purposes and is as low-maintenance as any other of our deck canvas. Nice.
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Hi, it was a pleasure to meet you 2 & share in the fine food,wine & stories.Nice boat! Hope to see you in the NW waters-blowing snow at present. Regards, Roger
Posted by: Roger Goodall | January 27, 2008 at 06:48 PM