Sail Making
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: Dinghy classes
Forum Name: Dinghy development
Forum Discription: The latest moves in the dinghy market
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10986
Printed Date: 16 Jul 25 at 6:04am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Sail Making
Posted By: Happilyover40
Subject: Sail Making
Date Posted: 22 Jul 13 at 4:17pm
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Hi Looking to do some sail making / repairing  Does anyone know of any courses or where to start? I have space and can use a sewing machine Do I need an industrial machine? Will I need a Zig-zag machine or will a straight stitch machine do? Any help greatly appreciated Regards Graham |
Replies:
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 22 Jul 13 at 4:37pm
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There are a couple of useful books, also some stuff on the web. Howard Williams is the classic book. People have done good stuff with an ordinary machine, but the materials are expensive, so cutting corners on the machine may not be good. As I see it, the problem is it is hard to do a quality job, so you are better off buying secondhand if possible. Repairs and mods are possible on a cheap machine. zigzag helps a lot. Google 'tyvek sails' though for an alternative approach.
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Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 22 Jul 13 at 4:40pm
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There are some good online sail pattern programs too. A google search should reveal those as well. ------------- Paul ---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |
Posted By: Daniel Holman
Date Posted: 22 Jul 13 at 6:30pm
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Opt out of life for a bit and work as a minimum wage apprentice for one of the few sailmakers that still builds sails rather than act as an umbrella franchise for a company making stuff in sri lankan sweatshops.
It'll be cheaper net than a mid life crisis. |
Posted By: yellowwelly
Date Posted: 22 Jul 13 at 6:49pm
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Or alternatively set up your own 'loft', and market cheap knock off spinnakers for the Smod sailors out there... ------------- |
Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 23 Jul 13 at 8:54am
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Ed over on the CVRDA website has done a sail making course - might be worth popping over to cvrda.org and asking about it.
------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |
Posted By: Happilyover40
Date Posted: 23 Jul 13 at 9:56am
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Good idea but unfortunately finances and family don't make this possible. Especially as my name is a decade out of date  |
Posted By: laser193713
Date Posted: 23 Jul 13 at 12:10pm
| Having a machine that will do 3 step stitching is pretty important. |
Posted By: Roger
Date Posted: 23 Jul 13 at 9:02pm
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Only sail making course I have ever seen is at Lyme Regis.... http://www.boatbuildingacademy.com/courses_a/shortcourses/sailmaking.htm You won't become an expert in a week but I'm sure there is lots to be learnt and it seems like a good place to start. Plenty of good working second hand machines around, zig zag and 3 step zig zag, look in the usual places and just doing a Google search will find a few. As has already been said there are free sail design programs about which will then convert the design to panels, again google is your friend. |
Posted By: Happilyover40
Date Posted: 24 Jul 13 at 2:00pm
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Thanks for that. Will look into it and let you know |
Posted By: Jack Sparrow
Date Posted: 24 Jul 13 at 2:11pm
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Start by making some kites. It won't cost you much and you will learn a lot of the basic techniques.
http://www.steadywinds.com/kitebuildingsportkites/" rel="nofollow - Basic construction techniques LINK http://www.kiteplans.org" rel="nofollow - Kite Plans LINK ------------- http://www.uk3-7class.org/index.html" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Class Website https://www.facebook.com/groups/1092602470772759/" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Building - Facebook Group |
Posted By: Jack Sparrow
Date Posted: 25 Jul 13 at 11:47am
Put it like this: when I was a kite maker I had 4 different machines for different jobs and materials. One was an Industrial straight stitch. So the simple answer is it depends on what you are doing. Sewing together a Spinnaker can be done on a Home machine and maybe even something like a Mirror mail sail. Sewing together a fully battened Cat sail will need an Industrial + a load of other tools for putting in Cringles etc... ------------- http://www.uk3-7class.org/index.html" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Class Website https://www.facebook.com/groups/1092602470772759/" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Building - Facebook Group |
Posted By: Happilyover40
Date Posted: 25 Jul 13 at 12:49pm
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The first thing I need to do is to fix / re-enforce the luffs on 420 jibs then fix the boat cover and finally look at a spinnaker . |
Posted By: Jack Sparrow
Date Posted: 25 Jul 13 at 2:32pm
Jib luffs should be fine on a Domestic machine. And relatively straight forward. I recently repaired my old boat cover on my domestic, so that should be OK also. The biggest issue with your boat cover will be the physical weight of the material making it difficult to feed. Combined with the relatively small reach of the Domestic machines sewing arch. If you haven't done much machine sewing you are going to struggle with this, break needles and generally have a hard time. Don't expect it to be a pretty job. But you could do it. ------------- http://www.uk3-7class.org/index.html" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Class Website https://www.facebook.com/groups/1092602470772759/" rel="nofollow - Farr 3.7 Building - Facebook Group |
Posted By: Roger
Date Posted: 25 Jul 13 at 10:29pm
As JS has already said a jib luff can be done on a domestic, I've certainly repaired one, although when I say a domestic I do mean a very solid (all metal gears) domestic machine. Biggest problem with sewing sails and covers too for that matter is the volume of cloth you have, this will be heavy and ideally is best laid over a large table so the weight doesn't pull the material around and so you can feed the material through the machine. An alternative approach is to sew on the floor, kneeling on one leg and operating the foot pedal with the other, this requires some practice!!! PS Have you looked at all the YouTube clips out there, they can be very helpful. |