I still have the original style sail covers on my wishbone booms. The sails lay in the bungie cord that is criss crossed underneath sail and then over the top. This has become the next system to improve. I haven’t seen, up close, how to rig the sails with a “cradle” hanging from booms. I like that system. I was wondering about the sail covers, how they could be modified with a zipper along the top to stow sails easier. Much better than draging those cocoons fore and aft after every sail. Would they be permanetly atatched to the cradel? When under sail how best to stow them? Would they open and close against the sail or stay open till they are zipped up once sail is down? Ya know its a real pain to remove and then reattatch those monsters every time. I know I would sail much more if I didn’t have to face that task, usually by myself, at the end of the day. Numbknots
Hi Numbknots,
I’m in the same stage of thinking as you are. I have my wishbones at a fixed height and I have five cradle lines for each sail. See photo in this other topic. http://www.freedomyachts.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10319&hilit=preventer&start=10#p40963
I am thinking of sailcovers permanently attached to the cradle lines with a batten in the bottom (or perhaps two) to stiffen things up. These battens would also double as spare battens for my sails. The cover would be divided in three sections along its horizontal axis, one bottom section - fixed to the cradle lines - and two side flaps with the zipper halves. The side flaps would fall down into the bottom section when the cover is open.
Any good ideas appreciated here.
The cradle system works well on a single-ply sail on a track like Michel’s, especially with the fixed height booms. I tried it out on Castaway, and it made dropping the sail easier, but with the two-ply sails, the clew and foot need to be raised up to the level of the boom for stowage. What has worked well for me is running lines from either side of the wishbone, through eyelets in the sail at the same level. The upper part of the sail falls onto these when handed, and it is then easy to raise the foot, securing everything afterward using the criss-cross elastic. Other advantages are no loose loops hanging below the booms, which occasionally snagged when the sail was stowed, and support for the bunt of the sail when reefed ( I never got it neatly folded inside like you see in the Freedom diagrams!). I use 4mm line, and have suitable eyelets (cringles?) which were put in when the sail was last valeted, five on the main and four on the mizzen.
I don’t have any decent photos, I’m afraid. If you try this, leave the lines a little slack, and adjust so they don’t pull or chafe when the sail is set. I use loose bowlines on the wishbones, and let them slide; the eyelets keep the lines correctly spaced.
Regards,
Gerald
Gerald,
I like the idea of the lines through the sails but your still stuck with the elastic cords to secure the sails and the sail covers arent you? I want to eliminate as much of the draging the covers back and forth and standing on pulpit & pushpit to install them. Also getting the elastic cord back in you teeth while trying to secure the sails is way over rated. Numbknots
I have to admit that we are just lazy: we only put the covers on when we won’t be sailing for the next several days, and most years almost all our sailing is done in one 6-8week cruise, so I only put them on 4 times that year. We have new and rather baggy covers, which don’t look so good, but are easy to get on and off; a zip up the front and hook and eye fasteners beneath, with no lacing. The problem of any permanently rigged cover is teh windage, which, with wishbones, would come just at the maximum draught of the sail, and thus maximum spoiling effect. Perhaps you could design an ‘in-wishbone’ furling cover?
As for the elastic, it’s quicker than sail ties and seems to hold the sail even is strong winds, but you do need to stand on the ‘pulling’ side. A carefully sited downhaul on the sail has significantly reduced the need to balance on the pulpit although I could do with being a couple of inches taller again.
Regards,
Gerald
im
a covermaker and i havent worked out how so this is a thorny one. if i had fixed height whishbones id make a doyle type pack on the foot of the sail with the lazyjacks led up to the whishbones.im stuck with movable whishbones for now so im just going to put up with sailcovers if it were a racer it would be sailcovers anyway.
phil, kusif35 ck
After Phil’s reference to the Doyle Stack Pack, I browsed to Doyle website. Et Voila: a photo of a stack pack on a Nonsuch (fixed wishbone)!
http://picasaweb.google.com/doylesailmakers/StackPack#5280502172574908082
Et Voila: a photo of a stack pack on a Nonsuch (fixed wishbone)!
Wow! It would probably give you three knots in a stiff breeze. 
Yes, and that’s hardly what we need with our twin big sticks. My idea is to make a less conspicuous zip cover with two flaps inside the cradle lines. When sailing, the flaps will be folded down and lie on top of the bottom of the cover.
I found some more useful examples of cradle-cover combis with wishbones.
hi, i used to work for doyle , so have made a few, they often end up higher than a sailcover as they often make a straight line from above the headboard to the back a foot or so above the boom end, with rcb cars the stack heights get insanely high. my current take on stackpack style covers is to finish them 15 inches aft of the mast and provide a separate forward cover. this allows you to make an aft zipped pack that is only as big as need be.
doyle stackpacks have a good feature,in that they are sewn or ziped to the sail and have a large flap from the top of the pack that when the sail isnt reefed holds the pack tight against the sail see http://www.doylesails.com/cruising/stackpack/index.html
phil