Has anyone ever sewed their own sails that were wearing a bit thin? My genoa's sacrificial piece is a bit tattered. Instead of sending it out I was thinking about doing it myself. Is this a hard project that I am getting myself into? I do have sewing experience. I just have never sewn heavy duty material before.

Not exactly a cup of tea, depending on exactly who much stitching you have to do. It can be done, but beware your going to need heavy duty needles and you might require a palm protector. Both of which can be purchased from a good chandler. It can be a challenge to pass the needle through the sail cloth.

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A trick I learned long ago is to take 5200 and spread on the patch you are to use. place the patch on the sail and add some weight on top of it overnight. Then the next day sew the patch in place. Doing this way keeps the sail or the patch from bunching up when sewing and causing wrinkles in your repair.

We do it all the time but you will need a machine capable of sewing very thick, multiple layers of material. We have a Sailrite.

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Here on Galveston Bay we have a slew of boating serivces and so prices can be competitive. I brought my main in for a few repairs.

3-4 batten pockets restitched

Reefing grommet restitched and patched

2 new battens

Small cross stitches in 3-4 spots.

Cost about $150.00 and the sail maker did a few extras without charge ie 3 sets of telltales and extra reinforcing patches on the batten pockets.

To me this was a bargain when you consider I can sew about as well as I can resist going through an all you can eat buffet just once.

I've repaired my sails many times. As Chuck mentioned, the machine is key to getting the job done correctly. The other thing is buying U/V resistant thread.

I don't have a heavy duty sewing machine so am limited on which repairs I can do myself. Pretty much any interior seem can be done by light duty machines, The perimeter, is triple or quadruple layers of cloth and for that you need a monster sailmaker's sewing machine.

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The best thread for sail repairs is probably Tenara, since it is the most UV-resistant.

Dandelion,

A couple of things...

Don't know how big your boat/sail are, and this does make a difference. Bigger boat usually means heavier sail cloth and a bigger (harder to stuff through a small machine) sail. But, the repair that you mention is not a difficult one, especially since it by definition is confined to the extremity of the sail.

Whether you machine will do the job depends, of course, on the specific model. In general, older, all metal machines like the Pfaff(sp?) 130 that we now use, or the 1960's era Singer that I used to use will handle the sacrificial strip, except where it goes over the corner patches. There you will likely have to hand stitch, but it isn't all that hard to do. Newer "fancy stitch" machines (the sort that embroder little anchors on things!) probably will refuse to stitch through even the edges of the sail. One parameter that will guide you is what the maximum needle size is for your machine. A number 18 is about the minimum that will handle the thread size (V-92) thatyou will want to use, and a 20 will likely be better.

As far as the use of MMM 5200 to glue material prior to sewing... not IMO a very good idea. The resultant adhesive layer will bugger needles and add lots of resistance to the needles passage through the cloth. For hand stitching I suppose it would be ok, but the time delay before it is useable is a problem. We, and most real sailmakers use a product called transfer or seam tape for this purpose. This stuff is sort of like double-sided tape without the tape, and is cheap, quick and very effective. It and all the other materials that you will need are available from outfits like Bainbridge and Contender -- suppliers to professional sailmakers -- and the above mentioned Sailrite folks in Indiana have lots of materials, equipment and instructional stuff available for us amateurs. YEars ago they published a set of small manuals on homemaking sails of all sorts. Pretty basic they were, but good enough to start me making sails for my S&S 30 at the time. I suspect that they will now have much more sophisticated instructional stuff, and I'd sure recommend your having a look at them.

If you have ambitions of long distance cruising, the skill that you will develop making such repairs will be a great asset... and besides, I thought it was fun!

Cheers,

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Gladstone Qld Oz

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Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying near Ashby, Clarence River, NSW, Oz

Thanks Jim for recommending the needle size. I have an old 1969 Husquervna (sp?) that will work once in a while for me - it is quite the fussy machine.

I was considering hand stitching but since the entire sacrificial piece needs to be replaced, I was thinking it would probably take the entire rest of the year to finish. Plus I am not sure if I have the strength to sew it through the outside fold.

That peel and stick sail repair tape is wondeful stuff to have aboard. I carry the big roll. It's about 2 oz sailcloth with a glue the never lets go. You can sew around the edges if you wish.
I consider my sewing machine an essential on a cruising boat. They like lots of sewing machine oil. Soak yours frequently and it will be far less finicky.
Get your thread from a sailmaker . It makes a huge difference in how many layers you can sew thru.
If you roll your sail up like a couple of long sausages with the seam you want to do between the two rolls, it makes it far easier to get your sail into the machine. When you've done that seam , roll one side out and the other in until the next seam is showing.
Black thread is far more UV resistant.
Learning how to do your own work anywhere on your boat is worth far more than the money you'll save.
Brent