Neville, you mention photos in your 'profile pic', but you don't have any albums in your membership profile. Please clarify. Thanks.

Paul Thompson wrote:

Neville Saunders wrote: we have had a number of friends and family trying very hard to persuade us not to build our own sails. While I have no problems with seeking professional assistance, in this case, your support has helped us to dig our heels in and prepare to have a go at our own sails.

I highly recommend that you make your own sails as most professionals have no experience or even concept  of what a junk sail is whether flat or cambered. It's completely unlike anything they have normally experienced. Coupled with the average sailmakers apparent inability to follow instructions or to admit that he may not know... you get rather unsatisfactory results.

I completely endorse the Oracle's opinion.  More than a few junkies have suffered a lot of grief when trying to persuade a professional sailmaker to build a sail in accordance with accepted junk rig practices.  Finding somewhere to spread the sails out is definitely a drawback, but if you have a carefully planned design, you don't need to.  I didn't spread my sail out until I'd finished sewing it up.  Church/community halls and school gyms are sometimes available for a small rent. :-)

Neville Saunders wrote:Wow. Thank you all, the amount and depth of assistance in about 24 hours is very nice indeed. From all of that, I think that we should be able to find a supplier. I will post the result so that others can get some benefit. We do have a sailrite walking foot machine aboard, so we are off to a good start. The sails are not much short of 700 square feet, so I think Mustang may be a first choice. Back to thanks - we have had a number of friends and family trying very hard to persuade us not to build our own sails. While I have no problems with seeking professional assistance, in this case, your support has helped us to dig our heels in and prepare to have a go at our own sails. We are having difficulty finding a place to work on Queensland's Sunshine coast, but if we have to, I will set up a tarp on deck. It may take a while, but more to come as the project unfolds.

Neville, Mustang will work well, just attend to the reinforcements for the luff, leach and head as 700 SqFt is a large sail. I highly recommend that you make your own sails as most professionals have no experience or even concept  of what a junk sail is whether flat or cambered. It's completely unlike anything they have normally experienced. Coupled with the average sailmakers apparent inability to follow instructions or to admit that he may not know... you get rather unsatisfactory results.

BTW. If you click on my name (under the avatar) you will go to my profile photo album. There you will find some photos taken while making up my last set of sails (for La Chica, from Mustang). 

Arne Kverneland wrote:..

I think that Odyssey III would be strong enough for most junk sails, in particular if one avoids making the top panels too big (better make them a bit smaller than the others). 

I had an off cut of broadseaming, 3 long thin pieces of Odyssey III (5x150cm) sewed to together end on end, like a 4.5m rope of Odyssey. So thought I would test its strength and tied one end to a post and hauled on it, expecting at least the V69 threads to rip out. No way. It stretched a little but the fabric and stitching were unbreakable. Maybe if I tied one end to the car's tow bar... might break the post...

Wow. Thank you all, the amount and depth of assistance in about 24 hours is very nice indeed. From all of that, I think that we should be able to find a supplier. I will post the result so that others can get some benefit. We do have a sailrite walking foot machine aboard, so we are off to a good start. The sails are not much short of 700 square feet, so I think Mustang may be a first choice. Back to thanks - we have had a number of friends and family trying very hard to persuade us not to build our own sails. While I have no problems with seeking professional assistance, in this case, your support has helped us to dig our heels in and prepare to have a go at our own sails. We are having difficulty finding a place to work on Queensland's Sunshine coast, but if we have to, I will set up a tarp on deck. It may take a while, but more to come as the project unfolds.