Genniker repair/maintenance

What's the best thing to do with small holes in a ripstop nylon genniker?

A small patch of tape on either side works very well for the larger tears, just one side is fine for the small ones.
Tears on a seam may need to be stitched, I do that myself for older kites, a 'best' kite would get taken to a sailmaker.
Best work out what's doing the damage and tape it up!

With that many holes your best bet is to take the gennaker to a sail makers and ask them to replace the panels that are ripped. We tore the foot tape right off of our RS500 spinnaker in February and they just replaced the panels and put a new tape in, looks as good as new. If you don't want to pay for that then spinnaker repair tape on both sides of the tears would work - I wouldn't try to sew it yourself because you could easily ruin the shape of the sail if you don't know what you're doing. While it's being fixed, try and work out what's tearing your gennaker on your boat and wrap it up in insulating tape. As a rule of thumb, everything sharp on the boat should be taped to prevent it damaging sails, equipment and you.

The RS 700 is a classic for getting the holes in the same place due to the downhaul method. The class mod is to replace the rope with dynema (correct me if i am wrong) which reduces friction, however it is a slipery rope, so depends on what boat you are sailing.

"The RS 700 is a classic for getting the holes in the same place due to the downhaul method. The class mod is to replace the rope with dynema (correct me if i am wrong) which reduces friction, however it is a slipery rope, so depends on what boat you are sailing. "

Edited by Ian29937 - 08 Aug 11 at 10:31am