How to store sails

[Koen B-12]

When windsurfing, I want to spend max of the free time on the water and minimum cleaning up, In most cases, I store my sails wet in my trailer, sometimes after 2 weeks of not surfing, I felt they where still a little wet.
I always had a bad feeling about this, although I never saw my sail ageing or degenarating by this, almost the oposite was true.

When scanning this site I found in the rigging manual:

If you sail in salt water you can put your sails away wet. The salt water will not mildew. Avoid the habit of letting your sails dry in direct sunlight, as the UV damage is irreversible. Do not store your sails wet if you have been in fresh water. Fresh water will mildew as it dries and this not only looks and smells bad, it also weakens the cloth.


Since I surf salt water, this is great, goodbye my bad feeling, use maximum of your time on the water.

[Unregistered]

Hi
I've only rinsed my sails off (on shore, with a hose) once in 2,000 days of windsurfing. Salt water for about 1,800 of them.
Fresh water sailing would depend on the amount of pesticides, chemicals, and preservatives are mixed into the water from upstream pollutants.
Sailing in a stagnant lake is sailing in completely different fresh water from sailing in Columbia River or American River. The latter two are two of the top 5 most polluted waters in rivers in the US.
With all the pollutants in the water, the sails don't seem to really rot, but instead seem to dry with a lot of residue from the water, some of which is organic, and that is what makes your sails stiff and "dirty". So I think it's the silt off the bottom, and the dustier air that makes rinsing sails more important in fresh water than salt water.
Whatever, the less you handle the sails, and the less you exposed them to sunlight, is better in the longterm for your investment.
The worst thing you can do seems to be rigging or derigging your sails and crunching/folding/creasing them, making lots of that monofilm cracking noise. Rig stealty quiet, and your sails will thank you.