Hi Arne,

Thank you for the help and support. I have two of the four paper patterns drawn. I would not say that I am now 'good' at making patterns, but I am probably about as good as I will ever be. The maximum rounding points are where they should be at 0.35B and there is a straight taper to the leech. 

It would be really great if there was someone anywhere near me that could take at look at these big paper drawings and tell me if they look approximately correct. I have not had much luck capturing the pencil lines using my cell phone camera. All the pictures look like big pieces of paper taped together, the lines are not clear. Since it seems like I am the only would-be junkie in the region I guess checking all my numbers three or four times through the whole process will have to be enough.

I hope you or someone else can check a few assumptions I am making. I have seen 'Odyssey III' mentioned here on the JRA forums. The only product I find with that name is called simply 'Odyssey' without the 'III" at the end. I assume that this is the same material. Will the material currently made by Marlen Textiles called 'Odyssey' be acceptable for sail cloth? I like the way it looks and feels on the sample card. As long as I am careful to keep the shiny (coated?) side of each panel on the mast side I think it will look really nice.

As far as thread goes I have been assuming that I can just get a spool of whatever sailrite.com suggests as the best match for the Odyssey color I order. Does this sound like a good plan or do I need to make sure I get something with specific material properties such as strength and size? Would a contrasting thread color be better than a matching color for some reason?

I am slowly making progress ... I think.

Scott.

Arne,

I will double check the length along the battens, and the luff and the leech for accuracy.

Will something the size of the trim in my pictures, but longer, make an appropriate rounding shape?

Scott.

Thank you for the feedback, Arne.

Truth be told I used an Excel spreadsheet to do all the scaled calculations. I found your advice sound. It was easier to print out and mark up your master sails than to try to get a precise drawing in QCAD.

I am in need of some assistance. I have the parallelogram for Panel 7 (the one with the boom at the bottom) lofted full size on some red rosin paper. After using the baseline and rise method I ended up with one diagonal that is right on the expected length and the other being off about 3mm. Unless someone advises me otherwise I will assume that 3mm is OK that not spend time looking for what corner is not completely square. 

I am now attempting to loft the round in this panel. The only other curve I have lofted was on my Puddle Duck. The rocker on that boat plan has 7 stations for an 8-ish foot long rocker. It was almost impossible to get the curve wrong.

I have a nail at the tack, one at the max round point and one at the leech of the boom. I also see a note from Arne that the aft 40% of the round should be a straight line. I am really puzzled on how to draw the correct curve using only three points. It seems that the minimum I need is an additional point marked at the start of the 40% aft section that should be straight. That would allow me to clamp a bendy batten to 4 points and get a deterministic shape.

I am also wondering if the 'batten' (the least expensive trim I could find at the home improvement store) might not be stiff enough for this task. I expect the stiffness will change the shape significantly.

Is there something obvious that I have overlooked for this part of the full size paper lofting? I attached a few photos in case that is helpful. I expect I need something longer than the 8 foot trim I have now. I have put off buying a longer length of trim until I have some confidence that it is the right thing to use.

Right now I am really happy that I did not go for a fan sail with many different panel shapes. Making 4 patterns is going to be plenty of work!

Thank you in advance for any help.

Arne, I saw in a different thread that you are back home after a hospital stay. I hope you are doing well and recovering.

Scott.

22 Sqm, 2.05AR and 8% 'barrel method' camber is the plan.

Down stairs I have plywood on the floor as a work surface and I have Sheets 1 to 3 marked up with the sail plan details. Right now I am not completely sure how to draw the locations and size of the batten pockets for Sheet 4. I think this can wait until just before I start marking the canvas to cut.

I hope to loft at least one or maybe two panels full size on paper this week. If anyone has time to look at my scribbling and inform me of any obvious errors I would appreciate it.

I am also looking forward to getting my Odyssey color samples. On order from Sailrite!

Scott.

Anonymous wrote:

Scott wrote:

The answer is going to be "Don't do that!" but ... Is there one of these two that will clearly work better than the other if the sail panels are cut completely flat?

The answer is going to be "Do do that!", because although we've said that it doesn't make much sense to make a flat sail these days, knowing all that we know now; you still want to find out for yourself.

But, do it with a polytarp sail, so that you make a minimal investment in finding out what works and what doesn't. Cut your shape out of one big tarp, add some pockets very quickly, made out of the offcuts, and make a rolled tabling around the edges, not webbing (to save money). This sail should last a summer or two. Put your initial permanent investment of work and money into getting a tabernacle and mast into the boat.

First, though, you'll have to decide on what kind of sailplan, in order to know where and how long the mast has to be.

Thank you for the very well reasoned advice regarding a polytarp sail. I agree it makes sense for me to learn about flat sail performance at a lower cost and then later build the final sail with a quality long lasting material.

I think I am on my own now. The Faintail sail, Arne's sail and the Weaverbird sail all seem to have different advantages. I find it harder to make a choice when all the options look good. 

Somehow I will need to decide for myself what features are most important for the sailing I am likely to do. 

Scott.