Super Sunfish sail question

[Alan Glos]

I am about to come into possession of a Super Sunfish with the Laser like sail that sleeves over the mast and then can be hoisted with a halyard. The problem is that the sail cannot be removed at the end of the day without unsteping the mast and pulling the sail off the bottom section.

Years ago I had an Alcort Force 5 that had the same rig but somebody had installed a plastic zipper on the entire luff of the sail, To hoist, you attached the halyard to the head of the sail then held the zipper closer as you hoisted the sail. To take the sail off the boat at the end of the day, you simply released the halyard and unzipped the sail as you lowered it.

The question is, is there any reason I could not get a sailmaker to install a zipper in the Super Sunfish sail I am about to acquire?

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY

 

[Sailsport1]

Sure, you could have a zipper installed and then put a block or fairlead on the top of the mast and a cleat for the halyard. It's been done on countless other sleeved sails like Holders and Lasers. Just be sure you have the halyard attachment located at the top so that you can get enough hoist. It'll probably cost $75 or so for a sailmaker to do it.