DA Y NI CK AL LP HO TO S are your storm sails? 124 Sailing Today October 07

STORM SAILS Paul Austin, Sales Manager for Hyde Sails, has over 12 years' experience of sallmaklng with the company. Much of his time had been spent In production and sales before moving to a Sales Management role Over the years he has sailed and raced In many classes, ranging from Squibs, Impalas footer racing yachts. He started sailing on the East Coast before relocating to specialises In selling yacht sails for both cruising and racing Used correctly and in good time, storm sails can keep you sailing safely when conditions take a turn for the worse. Paul Austin of Hyde Sails I f you're anything...

y A flat storm sail me your boat will point better and give you better control Is your trysail strong enough? tape and two layers of 9oz cloth, plus two 9oz layers of patch cloth. Centre: twin-ply cloth 100mm wide up the leech, plus 8oz tape and a 5mm Spectra leech line. Above: chunky metal slider at the head more easily 'cut and ride' when the Either way, as I see it, storm sails are useful, whatever kind of boat you have. What's more you should practise with them on a regular basis, so they become as familiar as Why then do we need them? Well, when the wind pipes up there comes a time when...

Beware flapping sheets. Having furled the headsail, you would need to wind the genoa sheets around the sail and secure them up forward to keep them well out of the way. a good idea to attach the sheets as shown here, so when the time comes you don't have to fumble Attaching the tack strop to a secure fitting. To ensure you end up with a nice straight luff, you might need to lash up a bridle. We made one around and everything's ready to go. attached to the two forward cleats. bridle to the starboard cleat, we then passed it through the tack, as shown here, and secured it to the forward cleat on...

the bows is more dangerous. If your sail has hanks, you should have coated them with Vaseline and sealed them in a plastic because with sails that are stowed away for months at a time, there's a real risk luff, which makes it easy to fit over a furled genoa. On some boats there's a separate, inner stay, which makes the operation even easier. If you decide to use a luff foil, it's worth making sure that there's an alternative method of attaching it - perhaps with back-up eyelets. Inset: an external track about 6ln above deck makes everything a lot easier. You can attach the slides and lash the...