A furling jib “sock” (cover) protects your sail from the suns destructive UV rays if you are leaving a small boat with a furled sail up for the season or for any great length of time.

The colored acrylic cover you see sewn on many larger boats headsails when they are furled is typically Sunbrella. And when you see the boat out sailing, it appears to be a strip of colored fabric on the leech and foot of the sail. This system provides for great protection and is correct for big boats with big sails, but not suitable for small dinghy headsails.

When a heavy strip of Sunbrella is stitched over the leach and foot of a small four ounce cloth sail, the additional weight of the Sunbrella is just too much and destroys sail shape. The weight of this added material causes the small boat sail to “droop” in light winds.

And since the leach of the sail is much heavier, it doesn't stretch as much as the rest of the sail. Soon…………the sail develops a hard leach with a big hook in it. Now, whenever you get a puff, the boat heels over instead of moving forward.

Our dark colored Acrylic sock is simply a long acrylic “tube” with a full length plastic zipper. For use with our P-15 and P-185
equipped with the Harken small boat furler and wire luff jibs, you’ll need to add a lightweight halyard to hoist the sock up over the jib and then zipper it closed as it is hoisted up with your new halyard. Just zip up the sock as you hoist the sock over the sail and cleat off your lightweight “sock” halyard once you have reached full hoist of the sock over the furled jib. The jib sheets will be then coming out of the bottom of the sock near the deck and can be secured to the jib sheet leads for secured storage. Your Precision dealer or local rigger will be able to sell you the parts necessary to add a “sock” halyard.

NOTE: As with all small sailing centerboard sailing dinghies of all brands and all sizes can be sensitive to higher wind speeds if your boat is kept on a mooring. With a jib sock and mainsail cover you are in effect adding a considerable amount of windage to the boat so in heavy weather or storm conditions, you are well advised to prepare the boat for those extreme conditions and remove as much “sail area” or windage on the boat to prevent capsize at the mooring. Most people do moor their sailing dinghies with the centerboards up, rudders off and all loose equipment tied down to lower the chance of capsize at the mooring..