This has probably been covered before, but anyways...

What's the conventional wisdom nowadays?

I've got a 9.5 for light wind days, which I am able to store at the beach, fully rigged, out of the sun. I usually leave it with the downhaul and outhaul tension slightly released. But what it I left it fully set, max tension, so I could literally just grab n go?

Rental centres sometimes leave theirs fully rigged. Does it really make any difference?

If you have a lot of money to spend on new sails, I'd say go ahead and leave it rigged. I wouldn't if it were my gear. There is a lot of torque on the sail, mast, mast base and boom latch when rigged for days. Keep in mind that salt and sand will get in the small crevices of your equipment that only fully de-rigging the sail and separating everything and washing it with fresh water will fully remove all the salt, unless it's a fresh water beach. The last thing any windsurfer wants is something to snap when you're fully powered up on a perfect day due to salt or some corrosion issue.

Windsurfing rentals leave them rigged due to customer service reasons and convenience.

AFAIK the biggest killer of sails is UV, not salt. In fact, some say that washing sails with tap water is actually worse because of the chlorine.

He doesn't have to worry about sun remember because he is storing his equipment out of the sun. Well you gotta wash the sail with something. What's your something?

If I could leave my sails rigged and ready to go at the beach then a bit of extra wear and tear would be worth it. :) Lucky bugger!

A couple of things to consider. I have had a SDM mast with slight permanent bend from leaving it rigged for a week, but temperatures were in the mid to high 30's. Also the alu extensions will react to carbon masts. Mine came out looking a bit ugly after a week.

In Maui we had 5 rigs, fully rigged for 4 weeks (skinny masts and carbon ext). We didn't see any detrimental effects on the gear.

I left a sail rigged overnight once when camping and didn't notice next day that it ended up in full sun, now the mast has a permanent bend, still works fine but probably killed its resale value. Would not do again.

Hmmm.

Well, I bought this entire rig secondhand, and I believe it had already been hung up fully rigged (some tension off) for years before I got it. Definitely not gonna have a straight mast. The sail will need replacing in a year.

I'm gonna leave it rigged; my main question is really about the difference between leaving it 100% tensioned or letting a bit off when not using it. Any perceivable benefits? And is the mast more likely to snap one day?

Its an Ezzy RDM 490cm mast and 9.5 Ezzy Freeride 4 sail. Great in the light wind!

Rental centers always sell off or return their gear after a couple of years at most and they could care less if a mast takes a permanent bend. If I was my gear I would not leave it under tension.

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Magic Ride said..
He doesn't have to worry about sun remember because he is storing his equipment out of the sun. Well you gotta wash the sail with something. What's your something?

You don't have to wash it with anything
The salt stops mould / mildew.

I don't wash anything and don't have any corrosion at all.
The only thing I wash is a poorly designed extension that has an aluminium part inserted into the carbon tube and I saw one of them where the alloy corroded slightly, just enough to swell and crack the carbon. Haven't seen others of the same brand do it but I'd rather be safe there.
Oh and the sail window might get a polish when I can remember to, usually after not being able to see thru it thus buggering up a top turn and getting smashed.

when sailing at the chalet ...
even when i stop for lunch , i remove tension from the sail - takes 10 seconds
when i go back out, another 10 secs
no secs 4 u ?? ...

when i visited Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, people had their sails rigged for weeks
they ALL seemed to release tension ...
it was my first visit and it seemed logical to me ...
have seen masts that are permanently bent
go out on a bender ??

Welcome back wet Willy...it's been a while
I'm very fortunate to have a space that I can leave my sails fully rigged and out of the sun or heat. They're full on racing sails but I take cams off mast and detension d/haul & outhaul. Never had any issues with mast memory or sail stretch.

I think I'll go with that...releasing few cm of downhaul still puts tension on everything, but I reckon it must preserve the performance life of the gear slightly, as opposed to keeping it at FULL tension.

Hello Sausage! Yes it's been a while. I've been sailing a lot less the past few years, but am now back into it 3-4 days a week -- if the bloody wind co-operates.

I have a 10 year old 5.3 wave sail that's fully rigged in the shed permanently, all I do is let downhaul and outhaul off. It's had a lot of use, but there's no sign of problems due to permanent rigging, (getting dragged over reef definitely), so it is looking it's age, but still a great sail.

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Mark _australia said...

Magic Ride said..
He doesn't have to worry about sun remember because he is storing his equipment out of the sun. Well you gotta wash the sail with something. What's your something?

You don't have to wash it with anything
The salt stops mould / mildew.

Ditto. Just derig on the grass to keep the grit off.

we've got a very sandy beach with a bit of a shore break, it's very hard to get to the grass without picking up a reasonable amount of sand, I just hose this off, before releasing downhaul and outhaul

Yeah, sand is a bitch. This 9.5 is pretty heavy, so after a good sail its hard to resist just dropping it on the beach!
Luckily there are fresh water hoses handy.

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Wet Willy said...
Yeah, sand is a bitch. This 9.5 is pretty heavy, so after a good sail its hard to resist just dropping it on the beach!
Luckily there are fresh water hoses handy.

Gritting my teeth and making a dash for the grass as I grip my board and rig as tight as I can, lest either touch the sand - That's pretty much all the exercise I get these days.