Staysail Continued...

Good day. I managed to complete all of the patches. The second set of reef (clew and tack), and all the corner patches. I also got the rest of the panels sewn together. Its starting to look like a sail. The last thing I got done was the leech tape with the leech line and the 3 sets of cam cleats for adjusting it. I am getting much better at it, as I go, but it is still a pain in the behind. In fact, my ass is killing me from sitting on the cold hard concrete all day working on it. I have given my back a little break now by doing as much work in a standing position as I can, like basting the patches together.
When I install the leech tape and the leech line I was sewing through 8 layers of 7.4 oz Dacron and the 1/8" line, at the head of the sail. About 1/2" thick.  It was tough, but after a few broken threads and a broken #19 needle, I finally managed to get the 4 inches done with a #20 needle and doing all the back-stitching by hand. It wasn't that the machine wouldn't do the work, it was fine, but the action was a little rough on the needle and thread.

All done the reef patches. The sail is 138 sq ft, the first reef knocks it down to 102 sq ft, and the second reef brings it down to a measly 52 sq ft, about the size of a respectable storm sail, can't wait to see how it performs in a blow. 

 Finished clew reinforcement patches; so much easier than trying to sew one in the middle of the sail.

 Finished tack reinforcement patches.

Finished head reinforcement patches.

Not a very good picture. But I modified the cam cleat setup from the directions, and went with the style that I saw in the Sailrite videos on their website. It just looked a little better finished. The directions wanted me to cut holes in the leech tape to run the leech line through, and then sew webbing over them to protect the holes. The way I did it, I just put two different pieces of leech tape and overlapped them allowing the line to come out between the two, then back in at the next overlap 10 inches away. A cleaner look in my opinion.

See, I said it was starting to look like a sail. Tomorrow the foot, the luff, and start on the hand work, grommets, etc... This is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Its cool to think that these hunks of fabric may one day carry me thousands of miles, and they were put together by me in my little garage in the woods.

Later...