Arne: What can I say?
I almost run out of air.
Do I detect a note of slight exasperation here? It’s understandable and probably as much my fault as anyone else’s.
I had better confess. I have had a couple of goes at reporting here, but deleted each time as it didn’t seem relevant and I can never seem to make it brief enough. Here goes with my confession: I too have been playing around during the last few weeks trying to “improve” on Arne’s carefully worked out and very clever method (the method B of back-to-back seaming in conjunction with quick attachment of batten pockets to the stub seam). And I have barraged Arne with a number of questions which would have been answered had I read his notes more carefully. Arne has been remarkably patient – perhaps Pol's post came at the wrong time, and was just “the last straw”?
Arne’s notes are worth studying carefully and I doubt if there is any method quicker and more practical. The notes are not perfect – I think the write-ups are a bit weak on the description of adding bolt-webbing, for example, where a little bit too much is left to the imagination – (unless there is something else I have missed!) (And I do still struggle to accept the idea of bolt-roped leeches, even though Arne provides enough evidence that in the case of a junk sail, it is a proposition worth considering). Anyway, scan-reading has become a habit for most of us, and some of Arne’s notes do require re-reading a few times. Quite a bit of reading and re-reading is required actually. We can talk about that later.
We all have our own special skills and special preferences due to what materials are available at the time, what particular problems we are facing at any particular time, and often there are good reasons for not just following instructions “by rote”. I had my reasons for doing things a little differently, and have learned a lot in the last couple of weeks (which was partly my intention anyway) so I don’t apologise – but in fairness to Arne, and other experienced pioneers who have so generously packaged and shared their ideas – these methods are integrated packages and when you take bits and pieces and add your own ideas – good new things can be learned and occasionally even progress can be made – but it is highly unlikely that the job will end up quicker or easier - and quite possibly the result won't be better, either.
I ended up making two dinghy sails, both I am quite pleased with – one with flat seams (yes, I like basting tape) and my purpose was to use timber battens and eliminate batten pockets – a solution that I think can suit a some dinghy people quite well, depending of what resources and skills they have available (though I wouldn’t do that for a sail much bigger than about 16 sqm – and I’ve done it successfully on a 16 sq m sail, by the way). I still like the angled shelf foot method, as it happens, but have developed a new and real respect for the barrel-rounding method of building camber. Also, in the process, I learned to have a great deal of admiration for Arne’s very smart and practical method of assembling and seaming a sail – if adopted in its entirety.
I’m malingering at the moment, isolating as a result of a rapid second occurrence of covid, and the sewing machine and table are still set up. Starting to rather enjoy sewing, so I’m now filling in the isolation time, and using up the scraps, by making some test panels which I hope to inflate with a leaf-blower and see what things can be learned about the various ways of making a panel.
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I’ll get around to reporting on that, and the timber batten sail, in due course. In the meantime, let me praise Arne for his generosity and patience as well as his fertile mind. I am sure Pol joins me in this.
On behalf of all DIY sail makers: Thank you Arne.