Perfect Sailboat Upgrades
Published: Thursday, January 24, 2019
By: Ken Quant, Broad Reach Marketing
Ken sails his T10, Eclipse, out of McKinley Marina in Milwaukee. He races regularly with the South Shore Yacht Club and MAST sailing club.
With the holidays behind us, it’s time for an old boater’s dreams to turn to unwrapping the biggest present of all: their boat. As we all look forward to ripping that winter storage cover from its snowy perch, this is the perfect time to explore potential upgrades to help make your summer boating a bit more convenient, safer, and fun.
For sailors, one of the biggest upgrades you can make is new sails. Racers know the benefits of crispy sails, but most other sailors like to convince themselves that those yellowing rags are good enough. Never mind that patchwork of sail tape repairs, old stretched out sails are very inefficient. If you have to crank your downhaul until it creates a large crease and tighten your leech cord until it makes a hook off the trailing edge of your sails, it’s time to suck it up and get new sails. Yes, new sails can be expensive, but if you care at all about your sailing performance, they are well worth the investment. Fresh sails will allow you to sail faster, higher, and much more efficiently in all wind conditions. Doesn’t that sound like more fun? It is a sailboat after all!
Of course, if you decide to purchase new sails, it would also be a perfect time to update your sail handling systems. As every sailor knows, flaking, dropping, and folding sails is a huge hassle and can even be dangerous in rough conditions. To make your life easier, why not add a new roller furler to your headstay? No more crawling onto a pitching foredeck to pull down your headsail. Instead, simply unroll and roll up your headsail with a line pull from the safety of your cockpit. There are all sorts of roller furlers available these days, so be sure to research the right unit for your boat based on boat type, use, and budget.
For those who want the ultimate in sail handling convenience, consider an additional upgrade to a mainsail control system. From a basic canvas stack pack system, to an elaborate in-boom furler, these systems are rapidly gaining popularity. They allow you to quickly and safely raise or reef your main without wrestling with sail ties at the boom. Simply pull the halyard, trim the sail, and away you go. When you’re done, there is no flaking necessary. Just drop and stuff the sail into the stack pack or roll it up into the boom.
There are several advantages to the more expensive in-boom systems. They allow you to reef without going forward and there is no need to get out of the cockpit to stuff the sail into pack if it doesn’t come down clean. In-boom furlers also have much better performance than their once popular in-mast furling counterparts because the wide boom accommodates a deeper draft sail shape and full-length battens. At boom height, their sail and mechanism are also accessible if there is a problem. In-boom systems have come a long way since they were first introduced, so now is a great time to see if it’s the right upgrade for your boat.
Another easy upgrade that all boaters should consider is the purchase of a VHF or GPS with AIS capabilities. Short for ‘Automatic Information System’, AIS’s can send and receive information about the course, speed, and size of vessels to help you and others avoid possible collisions. Now mandatory on commercial vessels over 65 feet in length, AIS receivers and transmitters are finally gaining popularity among recreational boaters after being available for more than a decade. Available AIS types and options are extensive. From a fully functional GPS that shows you the location of nearby vessels overlaid on a chart, to a basic passive receiver that only tells you other vessels’ locations without transmitting your position, any AIS upgrade to your boat will be money well spent.
No matter what your need is, with the rapid pace of innovation of marine systems these days, there just may be a new solution to your old problem now available. With the dog days of winter upon us, now is the perfect time to fire up the Google machine and see just how much better next summer can be with a proper upgrade.
tags: Sailing, Service & Repair
