Catalina 350 International Association

I took possession of #419 on May 5 at Riverside Sailing center, NJ. I am now thinking of winterizing same. First I will need to remove the sails. Is there any advice I can get about getting the genny down. I also have in mast furling. We keep "Storyteller" at the North East River Yacht Club at the top of the Chesapeake. Having fun - too bad the $ wasn't available until semi-retirement.

Welcome to the family. We have owned our 350 for three seasons. The way I remove the sails for winter is to roll them loosly off the head stay and the mast then fold so they will fit in the bags. Seems to work and is fairly easy to re mount next Spring.

Welcome to the world of C350 ownership. The sails are fairly easy to remove. I know the manuals are pretty sparse on some of these details but don't let that bother you. Pick a nice day, and unfurl the Genny. I keep a needlenose plier in my back pocket during the process to back off the shackle pins. When the sail is unfurled, let loose the halyard and pull the sail down. Unshackle the bottom first, then the top when its down. Make sure you have a piece of light line so you can tie off the upper part of the furler to the deck so it doesn't fly up the forestay.

It is basically thew same for the furling main. Unshackle and make sure to tie off the upper assemblt so it doesn't go back up the mast.

We lay the sails down in the parking lot and take one fold about 2-3 feet up from the bottom. Then we work from that bottom edge and pull same size folds from the remaining sail and lay them on top of the original fold. When its all folded from bottom to top, we fold the long stack over on itself until it fits into the sail bag. Best to do this while the boat is in the water. It can get dangerous if a gust catches you while on the hard.