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On 14 Feb 2004 13:29:07 -0800, (sandy) wrote:

I just bought the material to make the sail for our still unfinished
10' nesting sailboat. I took another look at the material (thin
nylon) at Walmart and did find that you could readily blow air through
it and quickly decided against it. Then I found material that looks
suspiciously like real dacron sailcloth. The clerks had no idea what
it was. It's strong (I can't tear a thin sample of the cloth), it
melts with a match...and it's much thicker than the nylon material AND
you can't blow through it at all. At $1/yd, I couldn't resist it. At
that price, I figured it's worth playing with (even if it is bright,
BRIGHT yellow).

Now I'm trying to figure out how to design the sail. Hubby finally
decided that he didn't want the sprit sail and opted for a cat rig
instead. This material is 56" wide and I'm wondering if I should just
sew the panels together (using the full width of the material) or
what??? It looks like most sails use narrower panels but it seems
silly to cut the material only to resew it. Also not sure how to go
about shaping the sails. I'm thinking of keeping it simple and just
sewing the panels flat and shaping the sail somewhat by curving the
edges of the sail.

Appreciate any suggestions. Not looking for a professional
sail...just trying to do the best I can without knowing what I'm
doing.

Thanks!

Sandy

Sail panels are cut into lens-shaped pieces before sewing together.
This builds in the camber (belly) of the sail. It's more complicated
than that but it's all I know about making sails.

)
I'm sure someone will be along soon to help.
Mark E. Williams