Zip it shut

You'll need a second pair of hands for this step. It's a tight fit - especially the tail end where you've folded over the sail and had to put quite a bit of the tubing. If you don't shrink-wrap the tail end, there is no way you'll fit it in (and shrink wrapping doesn't damage the sail - if anything it helps it due to the prevention of rubbing).

You will barely be able to close the zipper and if you have your foam trimmed properly, the closing of the zipper will butt the edges of the foam together to eliminate the gap. I don't but the edges of foam directly under my zipper in case there is any pressure put on the zipper.

This does stretch your glider bag and it will be lose on your glider after this. I use a lightweight UV glider bag anyways while at comps so it doesn't matter to me. I stuff my UV bag and some extra foam (for packing it to come home) in the nose of the glider.

The other trick I've learned is to center the glider bag on the now shortened glider so you can use the handles on the bag to pick up the glider balanced. It sure helps when carting it thru the terminal at the airport. That also urges handlers to use the handles and prevent the dragging of the ends.

I also ran into an inspection problem once going thru customs where they wanted to open it up "just a bit" to do a swab (like they do with computers). Well I had the ends wrapped up with cardboard and shrink-wrap and the zipper was under the one end. I begged them to let it slide but they wouldn't allow it so I had to remove the end cap to get at the zipper. I then had no more shrink-wrap to wrap it back up but they gave me some packing tape....I used their whole roll but it didn't last the trip. By the time I picked up the glider at the other end, the end cap was long gone....luckly, there was no damage.

I now put the zipper in the middle of the glider for easy swabbing if they want to do that.

I also now use a couple 14" tree pots to go over the ends. It works really will with a bit of trimming and shrink-wrapping. This tucks in the loose glider bag ends and prevents any damage if they drag the end. I took this last pic before I put those on.