In a previous “TodayILearnt” we shared that you shouldn’t leave flying sails up, furled on the bow as they risk being unfurled by wind and things get very exciting when that happens.

But what happens when you need to put your Asym away at sea and the weather is picking up or coming forward?

Trying to fight with large Asym sails to get them into bags and down into a locker can be struggle you just don’t want to entertain in a rising blow.

A much better idea is just to drop it down onto the deck, folding as you go and then tie it down. I personally leave it attached to the bowsprite and drape it across the bird catcher onto the trampoline, BUT do remove the halyard and move that to the side of the boat where we can firmly affix it.

Even without tying it down this will keep your sail from entertaining a self promotion in very strong winds and we, on Waiata have sailed through 45kts of wind with the sail laying on deck.

So same rules apply, don’t leave flying sail up on a blow, they are just show offs and it will end badly when they decide to open their act in 40kts of wind. Drop them onto the deck and lash them down with a couple of sail ties.