as an alternative-
I have a moulded rubber boot liner for my car. It only covers the floor but has a raised edge. It catches the drips (puddles) from boom, sails, harness, wetsuit, nicely yet still allows the gear to drain. I can just tip the water out when I get home or when ever.

I had got a quote from a sailmaker..Would that be the same type of thing?

Hello again, SBC,

Here's a link for what I think you want:http://www.boards.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=103&KW=skroat.

The owner has definitely gone out of business but before he did, I bought some of them from him. If these seem like what you are after, contact me privately and I'll send some digital pictures of how they are made. At this stage, the best I can offer is that the plastic was a heavy-duty plastic about 0.01 mm thick (I think that he called it 1000 denier plastic). When the bags are laid flat, the width of each side is 380mm, which allows me to get up to a 7.5m sail into a bag. The length of the bag varies, depending on the clew-length of the sail. The owner of the business told me that he had the width especially made for the bags, so you might be in a bit of trouble on this point.

Even though the plastic is heavy duty, I have managed to put a hole in on bag, fortunately at the end in which the sail is inserted. As you move the bag in/out of the car, you'll just have to make sure that it doesn't catch on anything.

The zip you are thinking about won't work (probably difficult to fit to plastic not waterproof). You need an open, sealable end in which the sail can be inserted and the bottom end needs to be sealed in some manner to prevent sea water escaping.

I used to roll the sail up, pop the clew end into the bag first, the lean the bag open end/luff end of the sail against my car, so that the open end was down, allowing a lot of sea water to drain out before I put the sail in the car. At home, I'd take the bag/sail out of the car, then lean it up against something in the garage, so that more water could drain overnight.

Another disadvantage was that, when it rained, the outside of the bag got soaked, resulting in water runoff inside the car.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

WindmanV

sboardcrazy said...

as an alternative-
I have a moulded rubber boot liner for my car. It only covers the floor but has a raised edge. It catches the drips (puddles) from boom, sails, harness, wetsuit, nicely yet still allows the gear to drain. I can just tip the water out when I get home or when ever.
What type of car do you have & what type of cost?I have a sheet of plastic over the back "floor" of my car ( hatchback with the seats folded down) + I have towels to catch the drips. I currently wash everything before I put them in which takes time + I have to hang the sails to dry when I get home & that creases them.

It is a Toyota Kluger and the boot liner came with it when we bought it, so I can't tell you the cost. It's great. Catches all the sand too.

A local Upholsterer here makes custom awnings, owns a plastic welder for the clear curtain (not sure of the terminology). This setup would be ideal for welding a giant 'condom-type' bag with a zipper top?!?

I have a medium 4WD. Remove headrests from front and rear passenger seats.
Length of open factory plastic roof spouting from front to back with end caps and located by transverse piece of spouting onto front seat back.
Front end of spouting rests on dash.
Up to 8 meter sail drips into it all the way home, pours into it if I have rolled it up in the water.

pretty hard to go past the "Gun" combo bag available from windsurfingsales.com.au

open factory plastic roof spouting

sboardcrazy said...

pretty hard to go past the "Gun" combo bag available from windsurfingsales.com.au
Ive made an enquiry but i dont know if they would be waterproof.I cant put them on the roof as I already have 2 boards there..I need a bigger car!!

I have one, and while I wouldn't fill it with buckets of water and expect it to make it home unspilled, I have rolled up plenty of wet, salty and sandy sails, popped em in their own little bags, then popped them in the gun bag and have successfully gotten home without getting the back of the wagon wet.

555's idea sounds pretty good as well.

pretty hard to go past the "Gun" combo bag available from windsurfingsales.com.au
Chased this up & he's out of 'Guns' but has 'Loft' brand bags which are lighterweight material.Anyone know anything about them?