Another day another boat. Bending sails on really makes all the inside work worth it. Asking a customer to tell me about his trips to Venezuela and Newfoundland makes the job go way too fast. I realize yet again how lucky I am. I have now lived in one place for 14 years. That is a first for me and the sailing bug has hit. My poor ketch needs a lot of work and my husbands cutter is too small, or rather doesn't have the amenities that I want. Personally I don't the a shower and a head is too much to ask. This week, I am finishing up a cats paw dingy and starting a green and white mizzen stays'l. Always fun to have some color in the loft.

In this sail loft we use hand-sewn rings. Either brass or rope grommets. We can use a LOT of them and we are not the only sailmakers to do this. We do make our own liners. I don't know if others do, but we do and it is time consuming, but worth it. And here is why. I have found that liners often crack, or are very thin OR are too thick. Sometimes the liner can actually cut the stitching around the ring. Here we have "liner man" and he is VERY important. Thanks "liner man"! A plug for Port Townsend Foundry. BEST BEST BEST stuff you can get anywhere. Not to mention Pete and Cathy are super nice people. http://www.porttownsendfoundry.com/ Check them out.

I love my job. I love hearing other people say they love their jobs. How did we get so lucky? Hopefully I will be a sailmaker for the rest of my life. A biggish cotton square sail, with all the "traditional" stuff is in the works. Handsewn boltropes and beckets and rope grommets. It is warm on my lap(the wind chill in Maine is -18 today), folds up small and it smells good. Because it is so cold I am not heating the sailloft so it is in my living room and that is a bonus. Life is good.

30 years..........

Well this year I will have been a sailmaker for 30 years. In a way that is exciting in another I am shocked. How can I be that old? Sailmaking has changed so much in the time that I have been a sailmaker. The fabrics are so interesting and the hardware is amazing. We don't use much in the more "new and innovated" fabrics here, but I love to learn about it. Once in a while I get a repair that uses some fabric I don't recognize and I call the vendors and find out who makes it and get some in. That is so fun for us. I am grateful for the time I have had as a sailmaker and hope to continue on. Sadly there are fewer of us and more leave the industry every year. On the floor is some repairs and a funky mizzen that a customer has designed(you know who you are). A blue drifter will start shortly. Blue is only bad luck on fishing boats, so I am okay with doing this for him. I found a unfinished oceanus genoa in my pile of sails. I think we will finish it up and find a home. So this year of turning 30 in the business. I am okay with it. My hair may be grey, but the body is holding up.

How to Avoid Sail Creases | Classic Boat Magazine

How to Avoid Sail Creases | Classic Boat Magazine

A long time!

It has been a long time since my last post. I did make a stays'l out of organic duck. It is okay, we have not tanbarked it yet. I roped it with hemp and we dry it carefully if it gets wet. Cotton sails are not for everyone, if you want to go fast, if you are lazy and if you don't cover your sails forget it. This year we have made a LOT of dacron tanbark sails. Bainbridge, Challenge and Contender are all carrying nice fabrics. I still love Clipper and am using that as often as possible. The economy has hit us all hard and fabrics are going up. It is shocking to see price changes over the past 5 years. Many customers are looking for a value and I get that. Your sailmaker can often call the manufacturers and see what is on sale, overstocked, slight flaws etc. Sadly, had yet another customer succumb to the Hong Kong prices and get an awful suit. At this point we can work on 2 of the sails, but one has to be replaced. UGH. Don't forget to store your sails in galvanized trash cans to keep the wet and critters away! Happy Holidays! Heidi

fabric

I spend a LOT of time thinking about fabric. In fact I woke up at 4am thinking about Clipper Cloth. This is actually good because the company is in the UK, so I could give them a call.

Clipper Cloth is amazing. It is also a real pain to get. I like to order waaaay early. There is an order for me that they SAY is there and they are LOVELY people so I want to believe them, but I have waited as long as 3 months for fabric that was "in stock".

There are 3 suits waiting for this cloth, I will be measuring and designing and praying the cloth is on its way. I expect there will be many early morning wake ups worrying about it.

So what does this mean to you when you order sails? Know your fabric, where it comes from and make sure that your sailmaker communicates with you. Once we had a customer who wanted a specific fabric in a specific color(he even painted the hull the same color) we had to wait to have it manufactured and when we received it, the fabric was grey and shiny. UGH. It took 6 months to get the correct fabric. This was unique and has only happened once, but I will NEVER forget it.

Well, off to the sailloft, a jigger sail awaits(also called riding sail) for a local lobsterman.

Organic sails??

Well my husband and I were discussing sails(surprise)and how they are petroleum products and we were stuck with it. Or are we?

There is organic duck available. It is expensive and it isn't as heavy as I would like, but we are going to build a suit for our 30' gaffer. Just a main and a stays'l.

I know there is hemp line available. We plan to "tanbark" these sails in hopes to have them last longer. How long will they last? How well will they sail? How expensive will they be?

Stay tuned, I will post pictures as this project evolves. This project will be secondary to my regular sailloft work so it may be a long process!