Today is a very sunny day, so I took the whole bulk outside, unfolded the sail and realised, that not only connecting panels 1-3 with panel 4-7 were assembled the wrong way, but also panel 7 with panel 6.

So I have to undo 3 seems as the different radiusses of panel 3 and 2 lead to quite some difference at the leech of about 8cm, which is way too much. Luckily I can adjust upper and lower transport with my sewing machine.

Finally I started sewing the chambers and the panels together, which is a good training for a sewing newbie (rather sewgasthenic). Double sided adhesive tape made it far easier.

My old Pfaff 437 industry sewing machine is rather for professionals, so I changed the original clutch motor to a servo motor, which enables stitch by stitch sewing. The machine has double transport, zickzack and a major advantage is, that one can spool the lower thread wile sewing, so I only need two spools and do not have to spool separately in advance.

As fabrice I used Paul's suggestion but a little heavier (220gr/m²), the thread is Serafil 30 and I use a 120 needle. After adjusting and oiling the machine everything works fine, no thread ruptures etc. The rolling tables are some helpful, particularly when sewing te panels together, but not ideal, they should have balls instead of rolls. For finally assembling the panels I will need a helping hand, thus it will be done in less time. Without help the 4 lower panels were sewed together, but I found that rather difficult. I will put together the 3 upper panels and then ask for assistance.

The result of my efforts will be seen once I am finished, there is an orphan 8m flagpole right opposite to my premises, where I will hoist the sail testwise, once it is finished;-)

Tired of laminating I started to cut the first sheets for the sail.

Preparing the sail sewing.

My advantage is, that I do have space in my former premises that I can use for the next weeks. So I bought some rolling tables from a bankrupted company. I hope this will ease sewing the sail. (which I will only assist).

Hello Joseph,

Sorry for my late answer, but I enjoyed sailing in Croatia with a conventional sailboat;-)

I do not feel competent enough to give any advice, my method is try and error, when in doubt: Add one layer...

I will try to write something about my ongoing conversion in the boat shed, as Paul asked me to do so. Today I realized that the mast I purchased (tempered flag pole) was slightly damaged by a visitor with his car. Not to take any risk, I will have to buy a new one, which may be thicker than my 150mm/5mm flagpole. Besides the cost I already had this in mind and I am currently laminating in a 200mm/5mm sleeve, that would allow to house a mast of up to 170mm diam. Still I have not decided yet, if  I will have a mast laying device, which would ease any futher alterations concerning the rigging.

As basic material I used 16mm AW100 plywood for the basement and the partners, , the partner rings I screwed with inox screws and glued them together from half rings, which is a lot of additional labour. If you have someone nearby to cut out the rings f.e. with a CNC machine, that would probably save quite some hours of effort. also a cone could be easily shaped, which eases the later laminating.

As I could place my new mast foreward enough to save the front hatch, I also used the front hatch support and reinforced it by 3 layers of plywood.

As lateral reinforcement for the deck partners I glued in two "beams" of plywood 100 X 16 which I reinforced by another layer of 70X16 plywood. Laminating the whole construction with 5 layers of 450gr/m² triaxial glass fabrice. The same I did from the lower deck partner to the bow (rather to the anchor chest).

On deck 4 layers of plywood make the base for the upper partner, laminated with 10 layers of both bidirectional and triaxial fabrice.

The keel bottom is made of 4 layers plywood, the most difficult for me was to get the bottom partner half way horizontal, though my 200mm/5mm sleeve will allow some adjustment play to get the mast straight.