Hi Dan,

Thanks very much for your feedback. I completely agree — a clean, flat surface like a dock or lawn makes flaking a sail much easier, and doing a 155% genoa on a foredeck definitely adds another level of difficulty.

This video is intended as a simple, step-by-step guide to the process. If you have a slip with a narrow finger beside the boat, one approach that often works well is bringing the foot of the sail onto the finger and having someone on board feed the sail down to the flakers as they work. But when you are restricted to folding entirely on deck, it is definitely a skill that takes practice, especially if you are underway. Deck layouts vary a lot, but with a 155% sail, it is never going to be easy.

There are not many hidden tricks. The fundamentals are the same, but it comes down to assessing whether it makes more sense to lay the sail inside or outside the shrouds to create the least obstructed path to start. In most cases the foredeck offers the most open space, so planning to stack the luff there usually works best. The person at the tack end will need to make wider folds than the person at the clew to keep the stack aligned. As you move higher up the sail, the difference between luff and leech fold widths will naturally decrease. If you are underway in breeze, it can be helpful for the clew-end flaker to carry a few sail ties in their PFD and secure completed flakes as they go, removing them again before rolling the sail.

If you are using a sausage bag, the process can be a bit easier. Laying the bag out unzipped under the sail before you start allows the clew-end flaker to zip it up progressively, helping keep the sail contained as you work. I will definitely keep your suggestion in mind for a future video!

Best regards,
Heather