When it comes time to buy a new sail cover, you might find the following ideas helpful: To us, getting the sail cover on quickly means we do not resent taking the time to protect our sails. Just as important, if a halyard starts slapping the mast just when we are starting to doze off, we hate having to open up the sail cover to get at the halyard or cleat to tighten it up. So we had our recent sail covers made so the cover stops behind the mast instead of going around it to fasten at the front. Instead of snaps or hooks, we use a simple lacing which we secure with a cleat.

As the object of a sail cover is to keep as much sun as possible off the sail fabric, we get the cover maker to keep any holes for lazy jacks as small as possible. We have seen flaps such as these secured in place using velcro. Looks like a good idea at first, but the velcro tends to load up with dirt and stray threads. Also, it does not always align well. After two or three years the flaps do not stay properly closed. These turners on the other hand, have worked perfectly for five years.

We store Taleisin's working jib on the bowsprit except when we are at sea in rough weather. The sail cover not only protects the sail, but by adding a small nose cone on a piece of shock cord, the cover protects all of the varnish work of the bowsprit. Since we added this nose protector, we have doubled the life of our varnish.