Tuesday, April 09, 2019

Jib Sail sewn and the Creation of a Frankenstein






The Jib Sail is finally sewn back, sort of, together.  
It's a Frankenstein Monster of patchwork beauty.  
But it's completed.  Franky!

After only 5 days and 26 plus hours of work...   Franky is back together!  Per my earlier promise, here is the total cost for the repair:   $25,969.04 Russian Rubles paid to the seamstress Anastasia.  Plus another $20 for thread to sailboat Cactus, $27 for sail tape in George Town at the chandlery, Top 2 Bottom, and finally $20 for even more sail tape from sailboat Spitfire.  Oh, and I had a roll of sail tape on board Prodigal before we started, so factor that in @ $25.  That's a total cost of $492.US  Now if it will just last till I get back to Florida it's worth every penny!  PRICELESS...  It took a total of Five Yachts to supply all the parts to make this project work.  (plus the shore tape)  One Sailright sewing machine crapped out, and a second Sailrite was provided by another boat.  Again, it takes a village...

 A great Frankenstein example of stitches

Special THANKS to: Don and Nina Preuss on s/v Enjoy, Dennis Painter on s/v Spitfire, Steve on s/v Cactus, and finally Erik on s/v Seal.  A very big shout out to the Russian sewing queen Anastasia for all her hard work and dedication to perfection.  She worked me almost to tears on two separate days! On Saturday we worked 9:30a-7:30p and SHE wanted to keep going when i started whining...

Part of the Seam was so thick it required Hand Turning the machine.



So now, after all the sewing now, 
I CAN leave George Town with sails.  
But I've decided to stay and watch the Regatta coming up.  
With the pressure off it's nice to relax knowing that Franky and I can leave whenever we want...

More on the Regatta later.  Today it's after 5p and Happy Hour.  Let's relax with a glass of Red and start planning where to go next!  Stay Safe and fair winds to all my friends.  *note: of the 5 sailboats who helped with this project which finished yesterday, two have already departed the harbor.  One is scheduled to leave today or tomorrow.  The fourth is talking about going to Jamaica and leaving here Thursday.  I'll be the only one left here, BUT, i have sails and CAN leave whenever I want to!!!!

Relaxed, Fat, Sassy, and Happy, Sail Maker Skipper

2 comments:

Ryan said...

Did you see enough of the stitching that you would attempt it yourself, provided that you had the supplies and equipment?

Skip said...

Great Question Ryan. IF you mean "can i now do this by myself?" NO! Unless i HAD TO as a last resort. But even then, i would have to have a Sailrite. The Sailrite Machine is a must to sew through multiple layers of Dacron and Canvas. Yes i am, probably, able to make some very minor repairs now after this schooling. But i would need countless hours to figure out the machine. It aint no skill saw!
****
Imagine if i went to the fabric store and bought material and TRIED to sew a pair of blue jeans for YOU. Would YOU wear them to work? (heck no!) ****
BUT i could make some very, very, ugly patches to the knees if you had torn them out!

Hope that makes sense. Hope the sail lasts!