Time to Sew

Finally getting to the mainsail. I ordered the sails way back at the start of the project even though I knew it would be a long time getting to them. Well, that time has come.

Of course, I ordered a finished mizzen. It was virtually the same price as the kit. No brainer! I ordered a kit from Sailrite for the main. I built the sail for my SD11 but this one is 2-1/3 times bigger! The prudent plan was to use the church fellowship hall. So away I went.

Here are the panels all laid out. It is one big sail!

There are lots of tables in the hall which was one reason to use it. You have to get the sail up off the floor. Here are four tables set up together. This was especially good for rolling up the sail.

There was some prep work to be done, especially with the sewing machine. We had to check the needle size. I actually used my phone to check the size. I couldn't read numbers on the needles but with an enlarged picture I could! The directions, which I was sure to read thoroughly, called for a size 16 needle. We also had to load up a couple bobbins (we had to keep doing that too!) and thread the machine. The spool of thread is too big to sit on top of the machine and is meant to feed thread vertically anyway, so we had to rig a coat hanger in a pitcher for that.

The first order of business was sewing panels together in 2's. Here I am sewing two together. You have to roll them together to get them easily through the machine. Notice the thread setup. 

Here's my trustee "assistant" (actually I'm the assistant) seamstress taking a phone break. She was great! She did the hard work of sewing patches on the sail. I'll have to say, after sewing them on, there is no more wrinkle-free material. They were tough. 

Here is my method of keeping the rolls intact. Masking tape worked pretty well. 

Here is the sail with all panels and most patches complete. As you can see, I only requested two reef points. The sail plan actually gives two options with three reefs the recommened option. I may be sorry. Most builders are adding three points. In all my sailing I have only reefed once. This boat will require reefing more often because it carries a lot of canvas for its size (it's designed to sail well in light air), but I think two will be sufficient. 

I still have to sew three sets of patches and the tape around the edges. Then there will be grommets to install. The kit came with leather for the corners. Not sure if that'll be necessary. We'll see. 

Combined we spent a total of 17 hours on the sail yesterday.