Repair and Prevent
Repairs that you can do yourself
In sailing and especially in regattas it is of the utmost importance that your equipment is in perfect condition. However, it happens to every athlete that something gets broken while practising sailing. Minor damages such as cracks in the gelcoat or cracks in the sulrand as well as small holes in your spinnaker or other small sail cracks up to about 30cm can be repaired at least provisionally so professionally that nothing stands in the way of a continuation of the regatta or the sailing day. But damage prevention also falls within the scope of repairs. The right tapes, placed in the right places in advance, work wonders when a collision occurs.
Manufacturers, Products and Sets
Companies like Protect Tapes, PSP or DrSails offer you a wide range of tapes, gelcoat repairs or sail replacement materials. The products differ in several respects from conventional DIY store repairs. DrSails, for example, provides you with cartridges with mixing nozzles that pre-mix the repair material for minor damage and bring it to the spot precisely. The manufacturers also differ with the sail tapes. While conventional spinnaker tapes are delivered on reels and are applied to a dry sail like normal adhesive tape, DrSails again handles the spontaneous repair on the water and lets you cover a small crack with pre-cut strips even on wet sails. New technologies like tapes from Protect Tapes, with which you can even replace broken stainless steel shackles, round off the fast repair possibilities on the water.