Many times, a sail which has a hooked leech (headsail) or draft too far aft (main or headsail), or too much/not enough luff curve (main or headsail) can be greatly improved with a savy sailmakers' scissors and sewing machine.
Apart from the leech issue-the best candidates for recuts are NOT old, beat up sails, but fairly new ones that simply were not built right. Sadly, more than a few sails will leave the floor with the wrong luff curve, and/or the draft too far fwd or aft. These sails can usually be recut. The luff curve is the easiest of the 2-you may lose a few inches of area, but an overly deep (too much luff curve) sail can me made properly deep with a long batten laid along the luff to draw the better curve, and slicing away. The overly flat (at the luff) can have a new deeper luff curve added, but you will lose some of sail in the process.
Similarly, seams can be opened and reshaped to add, remove, or move the draft location.
Sail shape and draft are a COMBINATION of luff curve and shaping in the seams, so if you have a too flat or too full sail, a good sailmaker can tell you after seeing it which type of surgery is required (or maybe both is needed to get it right).
The easiest sails to recut are crosscut sails, but tri radial sails can certainly have the luff reshaped and the shaping seams (the 2-3 horizontal seams you will see on most tri-radial sails) can also be opened up and reshaped.
So far, we have been talking about recuts for shape purposes. Another reason is if you buy a used sail from an E-38 for your E-34(for example). It will need to be shortened at the luff and the clew raised. Again, crosscut sails are easiest. Tri radial sails can be a problem if re-sizing, because they are designed to align the loads coming from each corner with the largest threads in the sailcloth. If you need to raise the clew for example, once you get more than a foot or so up the leech from the clew, and press a new clew ring at that point, the threads will no longer be aligned with the loads coming from the "new" clew. The sail will be weaker and tend to distort. Tri radials CAN be re-sized, but within pretty small limits. Dacron crosscut sails have a wider range of "re-sizability".
Back to that leech issue on genoas. Many times the leech of a #1 genny(for example) will begin to degrade from the loading, tacking, and abuse we tend to give these sails, and it can happen well before the rest of the fabric begins to deteriorate. In this case, it often makes sense to lay a long batten just inside and parallel to the leech curve (where the fabric is still fresh), and cut along that line, and re-attach the leech tape. You have really just cut away the "dead" fabric,and while you lost a little sail area, it was not very good sail area any more-now the air can leave the leech of the sail cleanly again!!
Older sails can benefit from recutting to some degree, but not with as good a result. If the leech on the main is falling off, for example, but the rest of the sail still looks good, a sailmaker can go in and take up a few of the shaping seams (crosscut or tri radial) to "pick up" the leech.
The concern with recutting old sails is money spent. It may be worth throwing $400-500 at a fresh sail that had a few problems, but an old, tired sail, even though it can be improved some, can be a losing proposition. I would limit recut dollars on old sails to $100-200 at the most.
Anyway-this should open the thread as Ted requested. If there are specific questions, just post them and I will answer as best I can..
Cheers,
S
Apart from the leech issue-the best candidates for recuts are NOT old, beat up sails, but fairly new ones that simply were not built right. Sadly, more than a few sails will leave the floor with the wrong luff curve, and/or the draft too far fwd or aft. These sails can usually be recut. The luff curve is the easiest of the 2-you may lose a few inches of area, but an overly deep (too much luff curve) sail can me made properly deep with a long batten laid along the luff to draw the better curve, and slicing away. The overly flat (at the luff) can have a new deeper luff curve added, but you will lose some of sail in the process.
Similarly, seams can be opened and reshaped to add, remove, or move the draft location.
Sail shape and draft are a COMBINATION of luff curve and shaping in the seams, so if you have a too flat or too full sail, a good sailmaker can tell you after seeing it which type of surgery is required (or maybe both is needed to get it right).
The easiest sails to recut are crosscut sails, but tri radial sails can certainly have the luff reshaped and the shaping seams (the 2-3 horizontal seams you will see on most tri-radial sails) can also be opened up and reshaped.
So far, we have been talking about recuts for shape purposes. Another reason is if you buy a used sail from an E-38 for your E-34(for example). It will need to be shortened at the luff and the clew raised. Again, crosscut sails are easiest. Tri radial sails can be a problem if re-sizing, because they are designed to align the loads coming from each corner with the largest threads in the sailcloth. If you need to raise the clew for example, once you get more than a foot or so up the leech from the clew, and press a new clew ring at that point, the threads will no longer be aligned with the loads coming from the "new" clew. The sail will be weaker and tend to distort. Tri radials CAN be re-sized, but within pretty small limits. Dacron crosscut sails have a wider range of "re-sizability".
Back to that leech issue on genoas. Many times the leech of a #1 genny(for example) will begin to degrade from the loading, tacking, and abuse we tend to give these sails, and it can happen well before the rest of the fabric begins to deteriorate. In this case, it often makes sense to lay a long batten just inside and parallel to the leech curve (where the fabric is still fresh), and cut along that line, and re-attach the leech tape. You have really just cut away the "dead" fabric,and while you lost a little sail area, it was not very good sail area any more-now the air can leave the leech of the sail cleanly again!!
Older sails can benefit from recutting to some degree, but not with as good a result. If the leech on the main is falling off, for example, but the rest of the sail still looks good, a sailmaker can go in and take up a few of the shaping seams (crosscut or tri radial) to "pick up" the leech.
The concern with recutting old sails is money spent. It may be worth throwing $400-500 at a fresh sail that had a few problems, but an old, tired sail, even though it can be improved some, can be a losing proposition. I would limit recut dollars on old sails to $100-200 at the most.
Anyway-this should open the thread as Ted requested. If there are specific questions, just post them and I will answer as best I can..
Cheers,
S
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