Torn sail on a charter: wear and tear or crew error?

A torn sail happens quickly on a charter. The furling genoa flogs while it is rolled away, the main chafes on the spreaders, a gust catches the crew with full sail up. Often the damage only comes to light at check out, and then it is about money: the base wants the sailmaker's bill paid out of the deposit. Whether it is entitled to that depends on one question, whether the tear comes from how the sail was handled or from the state the cloth was already in.

The charter company owes you a boat that is fit to sail. Charter yachts are out for many weeks a year, and cloth, UV strips and stitching age accordingly. If a tired sail gives way along a seam in normal wind, or where the UV strip had long since worn through, that is wear and tear and not your fault. Typical crew errors look different: letting the sail flog for minutes, reefing too late as the wind builds, an accidental gybe, furling against full pressure, or ignoring chafe on the shrouds and spreaders. In those cases the charterer is usually liable, generally up to the amount of the deposit.

What counts is what you can show. At check in, unroll the headsail and hoist or unfurl the main, look for thin cloth, open seams and loose UV strips, and put every finding on the check in sheet with a photo. If a sail tears during the cruise, get it down or rolled away so the tear does not run, write the time, wind and manoeuvre in the log, photograph the damage and tell the base straight away. In a dispute a sailmaker's view helps, because the tear itself often shows whether the cloth was already weak or was overloaded.

Worth remembering

Unroll the sails at check in and photograph every weak spot.