Tag: Sailrite

Sails, Sewing11 Comments

No Furler? Make a Foredeck Sail Bag

$tingy Sailor

If you have a headsail furler on your sailboat, this project will probably be of little interest to you. But if you have hank-on headsails and want convenient protection for them like the sacrificial covers on furled headsails, read on.

A foredeck sail bag is something of a luxury for the trailer sailor. It’s not necessary to sail and unless you spend considerable time with the headsail doused, it’s not of much use to a trailer sailor. But if you like to cover your sails overnight or if you keep your sailboat in a slip and you don’t want to remove and stow the headsail during that time, a foredeck sail bag can be handy and save you setup time.

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Sails, Sewing3 Comments

How to Make a Mainsail Cover

$tingy Sailor

Summer Dance didn’t have much in the way of canvaswork when we bought her: an original mainsail cover and an old outboard engine cover that also looked pretty ghetto. Besides being 1980’s brown in color, the canvas of the mainsail cover was faded and shredded in places, much of the stitching had disintegrated, and the zipper had come almost completely loose. It was unsalvageable but it did work as a pattern to sew a new cover out of Sunbrella, the gold standard of marine canvas.

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Sails8 Comments

How to Add a Draft Stripe to a Sail

$tingy Sailor

This project is a companion to my previous projects, How to Add Numbers to a Sail and How to Reproduce a Class Insignia on a Sail. If you’re getting started in club racing or if you just want to get the best performance out of your sails for cruising, draft stripes can help. A draft stripe makes it easier to  see how small adjustments in sail trim affect the shape of your sails and therefore, how air moves over them. A draft stripe can help you to optimize the amount of lift your sails produce in different wind conditions and become a better sailor. Becoming a better sailor means you make more efficient use of your time when cruising and have more fun. And if you race, better sailors sail faster.

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Sewing, Tips14 Comments

A Hotknife for the Rest of Us

$tingy Sailor

When I made my first canvas project, a mainsail cover, I cut out the pieces using scissors as usual. Later, when I made the cabin cushion covers, I discovered how much better a hotknife works for cutting synthetic marine canvas like Sunbrella. Instead of the edges unravelling, they fused solid. That not only makes them easier to work with and prevents getting pieces of thread everywhere, but it also helps to ensure that the seams won’t come loose after years of use and abuse.

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Sails2 Comments

How to Reproduce a Class Insignia on a Sail

$tingy Sailor

This project is a companion to my previous project, How to Add Numbers to a Sail. If you need to add or replace your sail numbers, you might also need to add or replace the class insignia too. Or maybe you want to add a company logo to your sail or a graphic that illustrates the sailboat’s name. Whatever shape you want to add to your sail, the basic process is the same. In this post, I’ll describe how to make the classic Catalina 22 mainsail class insignia for half the cost of retail.  Continue reading “How to Reproduce a Class Insignia on a Sail”

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Improve Sail Shape and Performance with a Leech Line

$tingy Sailor

Before I dive in to the main topic of this post, I want to wish all you stingy sailors out there a Happy Thanksgiving Day. Even if you don’t live in the US or don’t normally celebrate this holiday, I hope you can take some time today to express your gratitude for the blessings in your life with those around you that you love. Whether it’s good health, a loving family, a job that pays the bills, or just fond memories, we can all find something to be thankful for.

Let’s face it, if you’re reading this blog and you either already own a sailboat or are just thinking about getting one, you’re more prosperous than most of the people on our planet. I urge you to look for ways to share your prosperity with those who are less fortunate. On to the project!

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