DaySailer.org Forum

I'm going to have to pack it up early this year (family, work, travel) and curious what others do to ready their DS for hibernation, particularly sail storage. The Hull I normally keep in the barn and have a spar rack that I keep the mast and boom on. Still I take all the lines off and remove the floorboards and put them in the barns up-stair storage. That's only to clear the hull if I decide to do any work to it, none planned this year. The sails I remove the battens, roll loosely and trifold them so they will fit in a large tote. I'm sure there are better methods there.

Fred

I roll my sails and fit them into long sail bags and then they go onto a rack in the garage.

The boat comes under a dual layer of tarps, spread over the mast. Otherwise it's kept outside on the trailer. I don't close the tarp at the back of the boat, leaving a large-ish air gap. There haven't been any attempts by critters to move in, and the ventilation helps.

Boom usually stays in the boat, running rigging gets removed. Same for the floorboards and rudder.

I do sail in a mid-winter series, which means that winter storage gets cut in half, and that for the duration of the series the boat is kept under single tarp and more or less put together.

I don't think you can do better than a Daysailer.
I always scrub the hull, then polish it so the boat is put away clean. In the spring I put on a fresh coat of wax.
I try to get the maintenence done in the fall, since Spring can be iffy in MN.
Whe Truelove comes off next weekend, I plan to redo the mainsheet. Originally I had a Crosby rig, but the triangle kept fouling the outboard.
I changed it to a 5x midboom, but plan to switch again to a modifid 4x end boom.
When I have it installed I will send a pic. I plan to install two padeyes at the transom each about a foot off the centerline. This will form a traveler and I will have 2x purchase at endboom and 2x midboom.

Since my new main came with a long (rolling) bag, I bought a 10' pvc pipe 4" dia to roll the sail around. That avoids any crinkling. I'm not sure this matters, but it seems better. If I'm just putting it away for a few days I don't use the pipe, but certainly for winter I will.

I also scrub the sails at the end of the season, and I clean the running rigging by soaking the lines in a bucket of water with a tiny bit of dish soap. After 3 or 4 rinse cycles, they seem to run clear.

For the hull, I use a tarp method like GreenLake. I stake it in the ground on either side (before it freezes too deep), and visit the knots once a month to make sure they're holding.

And, I put the trailer on jackstands so I don't flat-spot the tires.

--john

Winter can come sooner than planned:

Truelove is off the water, hauled home and scrubbed. I have to rig my new endboom mainsheet, but there is plenty of time before she goes into winter storage

Hmmm ... winter prep, let's see: get out the long pants and windbreaker in case it gets below 70, maybe change out the summer sleeping bag for the winter one in the overnight kit, and basically otherwise get ready for our best sailing months of the year down here in the little latitudes, after dodging T-storms for 5 months! ;-P

I get confused about winter storage thing like Tim. Memorial Day to Labor Day, the power boats rule the lakes, Labor Day to the next Memorial Day, the sailors have more sailing room. Leastways in central Texas.

John

We don't often have to deal with water in its solid state around Silicon Valley, so there isn't much to do to get ready for winter, except cover the boat in case water in its liquid state falls from the sky. Y'all will pardon me, I hope, while I drag my elderly bones into a water-falling-in-liquid-state dance.