Been loving the northerlies lately in Byron Bay. Nige and I were fully powered today on 6.0's. Unfortunately I got slammed at one point and landed on my sail, knee first. It has stretched the skin(see photo). Just wondering if you can apply a light heat to try and shrink it back or bad idea/just live with it.

Thanks in advance!


Eric

Battle scar. If you add heat you'll possibly make the area brittle and prone to damage.

I've managed quite a few harness hook dents over the years and the sails have never torn at the dent, so I'd leave it alone if it were mine.

Its just a fun scar you never have to many of them!

^^^ agreed, I'd just live with it.
If u are really worried, a big X of tape over it will help if it does let go.... but X-ply in theory stops before it goes too far usually anyway.

Or go with a board repair job, fill with resin and q-cell, sand and paint.
(just in case: no, please don't )

Most sails and boards come with a bunch of massive stickers. I'd put one on there unless its in the line of sight.

Stop buying sails made out of such s**t cloth.

Its criminal sailmakers putting out sails made out of that stuff. Looking at that close up, I am guessing its a Neil Pryde (or one of their other brands) sail. I reckon that stuff costs them about 10-20c a metre to make.

The good news is it won't matter to sail on it. And given the quality of the cloth, it's likely you will tear that panel in the next 12 months anyway and a good sailmaker will be able to replace the panel easily for about $100.

Thanks for all the advice guys, thats great. I'll just live with it and maybe do the sticker thing if it really annoys me. It probably looks bigger and worse with the close up shot. Its about 5 cm across.

To be fair on the manufacturer I landed knee pointed first on the sail and I'm over 90 kegs at the moment. I was surprised I didn't go right through the sail.

Cover with a towel and iron over it with an iron you will get most of it out.

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Ezric said..
Thanks for all the advice guys, thats great. I'll just live with it and maybe do the sticker thing if it really annoys me. It probably looks bigger and worse with the close up shot. Its about 5 cm across.

To be fair on the manufacturer I landed knee pointed first on the sail and I'm over 90 kegs at the moment. I was surprised I didn't go right through the sail.

At a quick glance I thought it was 20cms across!

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choco said..
Cover with a towel and iron over it with an iron you will get most of it out.

have you tried it Choco? Seems like the obvious thing to do but has it worked? I might try it with one of my trashed sails!

I have fixed these dents with a hairdryer / heat gun before.
I did Put a dent in an.old sail first for a,test run. Check how much heat it takes first etc.
It is just like a mate of mine has folded some teatowels and used a iron to remove some small dents in.his isonic board.

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Sparky said..

choco said..
Cover with a towel and iron over it with an iron you will get most of it out.

have you tried it Choco? Seems like the obvious thing to do but has it worked? I might try it with one of my trashed sails!

Yes i have done it had an impression of my knee in a bottom panel, all I did was lay a folded tea towel over the dent and ironed over it with a hot iron do it carefully and you should be fine the dent was about 80% gone but the monofilm in that area was a bit wrinkly I then stuck a sticker over it on both sides and never had a problem since + looks good.
This is the end result the dent was reasonably big.(near batten)

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geared4knots said..
I have fixed these dents with a hairdryer / heat gun before.
I did Put a dent in an.old sail first for a,test run. Check how much heat it takes first etc.
It is just like a mate of mine has folded some teatowels and used a iron to remove some small dents in.his isonic board.

yep - boliing water works too.

Just lay the sail flat - then pour hot water over the area.

it just made it so much easier to identify if ever it was stolen. Simply super-impose your knee over it

At least you didn't go headfirst through it like I did through one of mine a year ago. That definitely left more than a dent. Btw I wouldn't go near it wirh any heat tea towels or not

Also related to this topic... sometimes there will be a crease in the sail, say due to a bad roll-up or a bit too quick at trying to insert that mast.

The crease creates a weak point in the monofilm, which can be the source of structural failure.
A bit of liquid-heat on the crease, helps to smooth that bad boy back into shape.