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Wanted! A small piece of sail for repairs

Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Repair & maintenance
Forum Discription: Questions & tips on the subject
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12506
Printed Date: 28 Mar 24 at 7:03pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: Wanted! A small piece of sail for repairs
Posted By: dimwatt
Subject: Wanted! A small piece of sail for repairs
Date Posted: 04 Sep 16 at 1:05pm
Last year myself and a friend acquired an unloved Freshman dinghy that required a lot of TLC to get it back on the water. We've spent many hours restoring it to a usable state, and are almost ready to start sailing it (or at least try).

The last job is a repair of the mainsail. This has a couple of smallish holes (approx 5cm x 8cm) where something has eaten through the cloth.  The rest of the sail is nothing special, quite with a few stains and other small holes.

I just need a small piece of white sail to repair it, but am struggling to find some suitable material.  I have contacted a couple of sailmakers hoping to get some small offcuts, but is seems they are only interested in taking the sail from me and doing the full repair (fair enough - that is their business). But we are on a very tight budget and are trying to do everything ourselves.

I have asked the local sailing clubs if they have any discarded sails that are not fit for use, but no joy.  Ebay only seems to have complete sails for sale, and these got for a minimum of £15+, and it would be a real shame to destroy a perfectly good sail for the sake of a square metre of cloth to repair our Freshman.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can proceed?  I'm based in the Thames Valley.

We will be travelling to the Southampton Boat Show, and I'm planning to harangue and hassle any sailmakers I find there, but otherwise I'm not sure what to do.



Replies:
Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 04 Sep 16 at 6:19pm
Try the cvrda forum, where I know of at least one person who will have white offcuts from a sail she has just cut down, and there are other amateur sail makers on there who might be able to help.

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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686


Posted By: dimwatt
Date Posted: 04 Sep 16 at 7:38pm
Thanks for the tip Rupert.  I'll head over to CVRDA and see what I can find.


Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 04 Sep 16 at 9:13pm
Registering can take a few days, thanks to spambots, so I've mentioned your post on the forum there.

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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686


Posted By: Brass
Date Posted: 05 Sep 16 at 12:30am
Whole lot of sail repair/patch adhesive tapes here

http://www.admiralpsp.co.uk/psp/products/sail-repair-tapes.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.admiralpsp.co.uk/psp/products/sail-repair-tapes.html


Posted By: dimwatt
Date Posted: 05 Sep 16 at 7:48am
Originally posted by Rupert

Registering can take a few days, thanks to spambots, so I've mentioned your post on the forum there.

Thanks, much appreciated.


Posted By: dimwatt
Date Posted: 05 Sep 16 at 7:52am
Originally posted by Brass

Whole lot of sail repair/patch adhesive tapes here

http://www.admiralpsp.co.uk/psp/products/sail-repair-tapes.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.admiralpsp.co.uk/psp/products/sail-repair-tapes.html

Thanks for the suggestion.

I have looked at adhesive patches, but as these are holes rather than rips it will need a patch on both sides (or patch on one side and extra sailcloth, which I don't have) on the other.  I'm sure these are excellent products, but just a simple square of cloth similar to the rest of the sail and traditionally stitched will be lighter and more in keeping with the rest of the boat.


Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 05 Sep 16 at 8:45am
We have someone on cvrda site with various weights of cloth available. Is soggybadger on here?

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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686


Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 05 Sep 16 at 10:00am
Just found a light weight white Dacron sail bag in the shed, unused, if any use to you to cut up? Would be about a sq metre if opened out, maybe a little less. Very white in colour, though, if that makes sense.

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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686



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