This feels like the kind of advice that will save us hours of frustration and toil. Time is running horribly short, so your help is much appreciated!

That thing of needles looking and feeling quite sharp is just the same with my Wood-Mizer bandsaw. The blunt blades can still be quite prickly, but they don't cut... We will keep a close eye on our needles! It turns out we have a box of six. Big box will be on order this week. Sailmaking starts a week tomorrow.

Arne, glad you reckon narrow Dyneema will be OK. Yes, easier going than the seatbelt stuff.

Annie, there are no limits to your talents - clothes-making as well as everything else. Amanda started making clothes again quite recently. You'll know what I mean if I tell you she has just made something very similar to the hooded Swanndris that I've been wearing for work for about 20 years! These things have got quite expensive recently.

Cheers again,

Pol

Yup, if you start to miss stitches, take the needle out and look at the point under a bright light. If light reflects back from the point, it's too blunt.

You can also expect to bend a few, as you drag the heavy cloth along, and if you attempt to punch through too many thicknesses. A box of 100 needles is a good investment.

The other thing to do when you get bad stitches - oil the bobbin race.

Hi there Arne and David,

Thank you both very much for your comments. My initial thought was to go with the heavier V92, and although I really see where Annie is coming from - being that there are much lower stresses on the cloth and seams in a junk sail - nonetheless I'm thinking it does make sense to go for higher volume in the thread itself. I'm glad of David's comment about coloured thread, as it reinforced my view that a brown or dark red thread might look good with a cream sail so we ordered some "burgundy" V92 from PT Winchester.

Fortunately the sewing machine came with a 110 needle.

Thanks Arne for the two links to the making of ED's sail. Sewing in horizontal panel seams seems to be a logical method, probably quicker to do and offering a bit more protection from chafe. Our "half lenses", as you put it, will be a bit wider than on ED's sail I think. Amanda has made a few scaled down mock-up templates, and has marked out two or three panels on some ancient calico that we had knocking about, so sail making has started! We are still waiting for the village hall to get back to us on how much they want for us to use the floor...

Gross extravagance here: I couldn't find non-stretch white or cream webbing apart from one (but the seller could not vouch for its non-stretch qualities) so I ordered Dyneema which is only 25mm wide. Now that I have it it does look a bit mean, but will it be OK? Of course stretch is not going to be a problem, but will the lighter webbing - compared with the weight of 40 or 50mm stuff, be sufficient stiffness in the luff/leech?

Apologies that my text seems to be disappearing off the edges of this post.

Thanks again,

Pol.

Funny, that.

In my head thick thread is good and thicker is better. Not that it is needed for strength the first year, but having some reserve strength is to me a good thing when the sun has worked on the sail for a few years. I have had enough sails where the seams rotted away (ordinary sails) while the cloth still looked ok.

The last three sails I have made, for Edmond Dantes (48sqm), Frøken Sørensen (20) and Ingeborg (35), were all sewed up with V92 thread (110 needle).

The thread is at the upper end of what my domestic Pfaff 360 will take, but it works by keeping it well lubricated. I often drip one single drop of oil on the full underthread bobbin.

David Tyler mentioned that the vertical seams, when laying the panels vertically, are vulnerable to chafe from the lazyjacks. I suggest you simply make the sails with the cloth laying along the battens. If you look up how the sail of Edmond Dantes was made, here and here you can see how we added a bit cloth to make the panels wide enough to produce each batten panel. I guess it is better to add a bit cloth both along the upper and lower edge on your bigger sail. These seams should stay well outside “chafe’s way” with respect to the topping lift.

I suggest you buy a little bobbin of V92 thread and do a bit test-sewing with is. If your sewing machine is reluctant to handle it, then go for V69.

Anyway, good luck!

Arne

It depends a bit on your sewing machine, Pol.  Most domestic machines won't handle anything more than V69.  However, all your thread really needs to do is hold the material together - you don't get the panel loading on a junk sail that you get with gaff or pointy rig.  It's a big sail, yes, but it's not particularly heavy canvas, I suppose.  I'd be inclined to go for the V69 unless you have an industrial sewing machine.  If you go for 92, you will need BIG needles to go with it.

It used to be the case that the darker threads lasted longer, but I'm not sure if that's still true.  And even with climate change, I doubt that UV degradation is going to be a big deal in Scotland.  Besides, it's quite easy to hand stitch an old seam where the thread has rotted out - use a domestic (round) sewing needle and make sure you go through the old needle holes.