Luddites unite: some of us still have hanked-on headsails.

But the acrobatics needed to stuff the yankee into the sail bag, when the bag is stored on the bow pulpit - is taxing my arthritis, agility, and old bones.

Years ago, I crewed on a WS43 (Elephant) and the captain had headsail bags that were similar to body bags. That is, the bag was tied to the pulpit platform, and when you dropped the headsail, you just folded it over, flaked the sheets, and zippered the bag shut. Another words, the sail bag opened along it's length. 

Does anyone have a sewing pattern for such a bag for the 250 sqr-ft yankee that we fly from our WS32s?

Ed&Karen 

CAPRICA #687

I think my headsail lives in one of those bags that you have described on the front of the bowsprit. I don't have a pattern but I will attempt to describe it for you because it is quite simple and wouldn't take too much trouble to sew. Take a 4 foot square piece of sunbrella and fold it in half and  run one zipper up one of the short ends and add a valcro cover t o protect the zipper. This zippered part goes in front of the forestay. It has a 2" collar on the top of it to wrap up the head of The sail. The other short end and long end have a zipper that runs the full length from top to bottom along the two sides. This is the top of your sail bag. The folded part of the sunbrella, sits on the bowsprit and has a one foot square section of mesh sewn into it for ventilation. After reading my description, it sounds more  complicated than it is. My bag is tied to my bowsprit and I put a couple of bungy cords around it so it doesn't go anywhere as it is apt to do in a blow.

Well it turns out the bag is not as simple or square as I had thought. It IS 4 feet long and 2 feet high at the back but it is actually 4 feet at the front, so the bag tapers fore to aft. Also the 12" square mesh is off to one side and not on the bottom. Leather patches are used for chafe prevention around the collar and in front of the forestay. There is also a zipper that is on the bottom but I am not sure why that is there and I have never used it. There are 2 separate zippers top and back rather than one long one. Anyway a picture is worth a 1000 words so take a look at these.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzR-bK6sRxghT2RYanUzZHRLX2s