• Always cover your sail when not in use. 

Whether its inside of a traditional sail cover with soft nylon sail ties, or in one of our Black Dog Sail Loft stack packs you want to protect your sails from UV and moisture. 

If you're not going to be using your boat for a while its best to bend off the sails and store neatly flaked and rolled in a sail bag in a clean dry location. 

• Keep an eye out for Chafe! Its common and often times unavoidable to have some contact between the sail and the spreaders or rigging when you're reaching or running. 

Make note of any areas of the sail that may make contact and keep an eye out for chafe in these areas. 

Having your sails professionally inspected and serviced annually with our production team at Black Dog Sail Loft can extend the life of your sails by catching problem areas early on and installing chafe patches in the appropriate locations.

• Release some of the tension on your outhaul and halyard tension on your roller furling mainsails. 

This helps reduce stretch and elongation over time. 

Don't forget to tighten the halyard before you unfurl the main.

• Avoid any unnecessary flapping or flogging! Adjust your leech lines in light air and reef when necessary. 

Letting your sail flog greatly increases wear along the leech. 

• Check your luff hardware often! 

Look for any wear or damaged luff cars or webbing.

• On furling headsails your UV strip or sacrificial should be on the outside of the sail when furled, protect your sail from the sun. 

If your sail is showing white (dacron) between the colored sections when its furled it needs to be furled tighter. 

• Avoid any unnecessary flapping or flogging and backwinding! 

Adjust your leech lines in light air. 

Letting your sail flog greatly increases wear along the leech. 

• When your boat is not in use for long periods of time remove your sails and store in a clean dry place. 

Neatly flaked and rolled inside of a sailbag. 

• Check for any Chafe along the leech for any spots the sail may contact spreaders or mast mounted hardware such as radar.

• Store your sails somewhere dry when not in use. 

Do not put your sails away wet. moisture attracts mold and reduces the life of the sail.

• Wash your sails with fresh water when possible. 

• Take care of small holes before they become big ones.

• Never fly your downwind sails in conditions that exceeds the AWA and AWS that the sail was designed for.