What goes on the surface, and the patches that go where your rig rubs against the sail. The second is the part that decides how long the sail lasts.
What you can choose
Sail numbers and insignia where the boat carries them — both sides, country code above the number, the two faces offset in height so both read when the sun is behind the sail. A cruising boat that does not race needs neither.
Draft stripes, one to three, so trim can be judged by looking. More useful here than on a mainsail, because a headsail’s shape changes as it is rolled and a stripe shows when it has gone deep.
A telltale window — a small clear panel that lets you read the leeward telltales from the windward side. Genuinely useful on any sail that is actively trimmed, and easy to forget to ask for. Telltales themselves are standard.
Tape colour, and the colour of the UV strip — which on most boats is the largest area of colour on deck. That one is chosen for durability first; see Furling Features.
A logo, provided you have the right to use it and can supply it at a usable resolution. It has to sit clear of the UV strip and of where the sail rolls tightest, and a double-sided logo is judged in proof against how it will look flying rather than how the file looks flat.
Chafe patches, and how they work
These are the ones that matter, and they arrive differently from everything else.
Where a headsail touches the rig — the spreader ends when it is eased, the guardrails and stanchions along the foot, whatever is on the foredeck under a low clew — depends on your boat, not on the sail’s dimensions. So we cannot mark them from here.
Two ways to have them:
Supplied loose, as self-adhesive taffeta patches in the quantity your sail calls for. Hoist the sail, find where it touches, and stick them on. This is the normal arrangement.
Sewn on before delivery, if you send us the positions measured off your existing sail.
The best evidence is the sail you are replacing: photograph the wear, and tell us when it happens. “Only on port tack” or “at anchor when it rolls” identifies the cause better than the mark does.
The UV strip is different — that one we make and finish.
The bag
Every sail comes with one. On a furling headsail it matters at the start and end of the season and when the sail goes for service. On a hanked sail it is working equipment, and how fast the sail comes out of it in the right orientation is worth thinking about.
Configuring this at SurgeSails
Sail Number with colour and size, Draft Stripes with colours, Telltale Window, Tape Color, Sail Label, Bag Type, Spreader Patches and Stanchion Patches, plus Show Logo and its placement.
Spreader Patches and Stanchion Patches set how many pairs come with the sail, not where they go.