Mainsail Part III

I once read somewhere that it was bad luck if a sailmaker didn't bleed on his sail. No worries here...

The staysail has a few little stains on it, but the mainsail had remained blood free until today. Oh, it had cut me, the edge of dacron ripping through the flesh under the fingernail, but I didn't bleed on the sail. Today I shoved the hand sewing needle into one of my fingers. Just a little prick, but enough to get the job done. So I guess I can considered the sail christened.

Spent an additional 6 hrs on the sail today, so that makes a total of 24 hrs. I don't think it will be done in 30, but close. 6 hrs really didn't get me as far along as I had thought it might. Of course if I didn't screw up, then maybe I would have more done. I had bought extra grommets, both large and small so that if I, sorry; when I made a booboo, then I would have the parts. I crushed one of the large eyelets today, splitting it and cutting several of the strings around the ring. So I had to carefully cut the eyelet out using a hacksaw blade taking care not to damage the leather or the sail. Then I had to redo the entire ring, eyelet, and leather. Hope I don't have to do that again.

However, I finished all three corners, and got one of the reef points done.

 The head. What a pain in the buttocks. Everything was so tight, and the leech line was in the way, and there are 11 layers of cloth. But I got it done. Doing the head like this with the boltrope going around the head and down the leech 3 feet cost me about 4" of sail length, but it is a tough setup, and I never have to worry about getting the headboard caught on anything. That's how we can raise and lower the main on any point of sail, not just into the wind.

 Head with grommet and roped.

 And, the sacrificial leather to keep the chafe down.

 And here is the clew with its outhaul slug. This one took some pre-planning while I was doing the boltrope, but it turned out really good. There is a lot of stress on this point of the sail, so it needs to be tough. In comparison to my current sail, this is like Abram tank tough.

 The tack is a little less exciting, but still a very tough setup. These sewn in grommets are so much better than a hydraulic press fit grommet that you normally get on a production sail. There are 3 to 4 times as many stitches than hydraulic pins, and the stitches are varied in length, one short, one long, one short, one long, all the way around. I actually sew all the short stitches first, and then the long ones, but the effect is the same. Grab more material and spread the load out to the sail.

Here is the first tack reefing grommet. See the one I had to cut out of the whole before I redid it and got it right this time. Figuring out how to do the leather was interesting. Emiliano's book didn't say anything specific about mainsail reefing points, and the ones for the foresails have the loads in different areas. So I came up with this one on my own. The rope that hauls down the reef pulls down and slightly forward, so that is where I put the chafe protection.

Only 5 more reefing grommets to go, and then I pack the sail up until lift-in, end May.

Should have it done tomorrow, but who knows. I have to walk to town for groceries, so that will eat up a few hours. Good exercise though, even if my neighbors think we're nuts. Oh crap, I forgot, I have to do the luff grommets and all the sliders which have to be sewn on, that will take a little extra time. I'll get er' done eventually.

Fair winds.