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!