Sail Fest on s\v Elegant'sea, removing sails - 2017

Debbie working with the Harken fuller.

We washed the Hyde 135 percent genoa and we are letting it dry.

The main is also drying.

End of May 2017 - Tied up in Marina Mazatlán, Mexico

We are getting ready to lower and fold the Hyde genoa. We have decided never to do this again ourselves! It is just too much work for two people. Last year, we only paid about $85.00 USD here in Mazatlán to have the sails washed, dried, folder, bagged and that includes removing the lazy jacks and washing the stack pack and removing the batons in the main sail and the stack pack. So it was well worth it. We didn't do that this year as we are recovering financially from buying the car.  So now we will save a little each month to be able to afford it next year.

Sails a'drying.

Debbie is covering the running lights for the summer.

The sails still look brand new after five seasons of cruising!

Helps to take care of them like we do!

Drying out.

We are getting ready to move the starboard bow closer to the dock

so we can lower the Hyde Genoa 135 onto the dock as we fold it.

You can see the main is off.

We removed the stack pack and lazy jacks also.

OK we got the genoa down. We have a dock on each side of the boat in this slip. We have s\v Elegant'sea next to the starboard dock. I lowered the genoa and Debbie folded it on the dock. Just and easy...Not. It is a big sail and hard to handle. Of course, we did this early in the morning so no wind.

Removing battens from the main.

We took it off the boat, wrapped in the stack pack and then laid it on the dock.

Not such a big deal folding up the Hyde main sail.

Finishing up.

People seem to do different things with their sails. Some just leave them up. Some take the Genoa down. Some do what we do. After our first two years here in Mexico, when we thought we would go say sailing in the summer, we discovered that was not going to happen. Then we decided that our sails are new and letting them sit out for six months in the harsh sun\UV and the add heavy rains and different wind conditions, it would be better to take them down. If we are on the boat it is difficult for us to store the sails so they need to come down just before we move off to a temperary place to live. If we are on the boat we can raise the sails to let them dry out after a heavy rain. No rest from the relentless sun though. This year we made a deal when selling our extra Mercury outboard for some storage for the summer. We have our dinghy there and the sails will go there. Last year we left them covered on the fore deck until we went to the US so I could get a new hip. When we left, we put them in the boat and with the dehumidifier running they stayed nice and protected from the elements.