Sailmakers since 1974
Flat cloth, curved on purpose.
Every sail leaves here flat and arrives at the boat curved. The curve is cut into the seams before a single panel is joined, and it is the reason one sail sets and another one bags.
Mainsail, 11.4 m sloop, full batten
Mainsail, 11.4 m sloop, full batten
Luff, P
13.2 m
Foot, E
4.6 m
Head
1.15 m
Roach
9 percent
Luff round
2.2 percent
Area
51.9 m2
The area is not a figure we typed in. It is the outline you are looking at, integrated: change the roach and it moves, and so does the cloth the sail costs.
15 panels off a 915 mm roll.
Cross cut: the panels run square to the leech, which is the cheapest honest way to build a sail and still the right one for most cruising boats.
- Cloth
- Cruising laminate, 320 g
- Weight
- 320 g/m2
- Seams
- 14
- Girth
- 13.93 m
Every one of those seams is about to be cut wider through its middle than at its ends. That is the next screen, and it is the whole job.
The curve, and what it costs in cloth
A cambered section is longer than the flat chord under it. That difference is the surplus we cut into the seams: a few millimetres of extra width through the middle of each seam, tapering to nothing at both ends.
12 percent camber at 42 percent aft. Over a 4.58 m chord, that section wants 176 mm more cloth than the chord under it.
The luff is cut with 2.2 percent round. The mast takes up 65 percent of it as it bends, leaving 98 mm, so the two seams either side of that section are broadened 39 mm apiece to make up the rest.
Take the broadseam out and the sail is flat: fast in nothing, useful in nothing. Put in too much and it is a bag that will not point. There is one right answer per boat and it is arithmetic, not taste.
64.7 metres on the roll.
| Seam | Length | Broadseam |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | 2.13 m | 16 mm |
| 02 | 2.68 m | 17 mm |
| 03 | 3.16 m | 19 mm |
| 04 | 3.56 m | 22 mm |
| 05 | 3.90 m | 25 mm |
| 06 | 4.17 m | 29 mm |
| 07 | 4.40 m | 34 mm |
| 08 | 4.58 m | 39 mm |
First eight of 14 seams. 18.9 kg of cloth in total, at 14 percent wastage.
Sails off this floor
Mainsail, full batten
Rustler 36
Cross cut, 340 g cruising laminate
Genoa, 135 percent
Rustler 36
Radial head, foam luff
Gaff main and topsail
Fife 8 metre, 1926
Flax weave polyester, hand roped
Blade jib
J/109
Radial, taped leech
And the rest of it
Recut
A sail that has stretched out of shape, brought back to its designed section.
Repair
Panel replacement, leech and luff tapes, batten pockets, hand work on old cloth.
Valet and storage
Washed, dried, inspected, logged and hung through the winter.
Covers and canvas
Stack packs, sprayhoods, winch and wheel covers, cut on the same floor.
Send us the boat.
Rig dimensions and what you use the boat for is enough to start. We will send back a drawing, an area, and a price, and you will know what the cloth is before you agree to anything.
The Old Sail Loft, Quay Road Falmouth TR11 3EA
Cutting floor open to visitors on weekday mornings.