Leach cover...

Hi Gang...

I hope all of you get back on the water soon. I see all the cold weather in most of the upper 48 and am enjoying our summer season very much down here.

The question is, The UV cover on the leach & foot of our 135 has come apart... the stitching is over 4 years old and the tropics is NOT easy on it.
The Sunbrella fabric dealer in Nicaragua is a awning sewer and there are NO sail makers in the country.
He does not have a "zig zag" but assures me his straight stitch will do the job and hold just as good. Noting that dodger and bimi are both straight stitch.

Need some input as to what you think... He sews tents, awnings, and sunscreens and they hold up.

Ralph

OK, totally different approach, that may or may not make sense, but if it turns out you really want to use a zig-zag stitch, and you think you might have a lot more canvas work in your future due to the tropical sun, is it worth buying him a machine that can do the zig zag stitch (Sailrite?) in trade for canvas work? You might be able to swing a deal for UV cover and dodger and bimini and have someone on their way to being a sailmaker locally?

Emerald said:

OK, totally different approach, that may or may not make sense, but if it turns out you really want to use a zig-zag stitch, and you think you might have a lot more canvas work in your future due to the tropical sun, is it worth buying him a machine that can do the zig zag stitch (Sailrite?) in trade for canvas work? You might be able to swing a deal for UV cover and dodger and bimini and have someone on their way to being a sailmaker locally?

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Emerald, Excellent idea!.......teach a man to fish.......

any stitch will do. the cover is sacrificial and gives no strength to the sail. you could tape it glue it or staple it on and it will still do its job....to set out at the end of the sail and rot in the sun so the sail doesn't! Emerald can't believe you missed this one but really like your answer! Edd

exoduse35 said:

Emerald can't believe you missed this one but really like your answer! Edd

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I'll happily profess limited sailmaking knowledge, and while I knew it wasn't a load bearing part of the sail, I went into over-analyze mode of thinking what quality of it about a zig-zag stitch would be superior to long term wind abuse etc. Of course, completely overlooked my own use of adhesive UV cover on a sail But what the heck, we all get to occasionally where the cone shaped hat made of sunbrella

The UV cover on our genoa tends to "balloon" when we furl the sail. The last 1-2 feet don't furl too well because of this. I have to pull the line much harder than I should, wait a bit & pull some more. Then the pocket of air is finally expelled & I finish furling the sail. This is only a slight annoyance, but it needs to have some additional stitching applied so it won't puff up like it does......on of these days. Make sure yours doesn't do that.

one other thought is to have a sock built for it with a zipper that gets hoisted by a spinnaker halyard. What kind of stitch you use wouldn't matter on that.
Just a thought.

Chris Miller said:

one other thought is to have a sock built for it with a zipper that gets hoisted by a spinnaker halyard. What kind of stitch you use wouldn't matter on that.
Just a thought.

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I have a sock for an old 110 gennie. Both are now in my attic.

My advice: fix the leech cover; you haven't lived 'till you try unfouling a sock in a 30 knot blow.

No matter what I did, how I tied it off, or what precautions I took, the durn thang ended up fouled around the headstay - or flying like a spinnaker, narrowly missing neighboring boat's masts.

I didn't have a zipper installed; used twist buttons instead. That probably contributed to the problem, allowing air inside the bag. But I was always afraid of a zipper getting stuck. The whole thing was a pain.

My newer RF 135 jib has a proper leech cover. The sock is just a bad memory


YMMV
Capt Dan G>E35II "Kunu"