sail damage

Rcsailing.net Technology Discussions
1

hi guys. was just looking at my old set of sails. and i am sure some of us. maybe all of us , has had this problem before.
my mainsail has developed a fold along the leech. Now i want to reclaim my mainsail

  1. has anybody every had this problem before.
  2. if you have, how did you fix it
  3. can you reapir it?
    Cougar
2

Hi,
along the leech? What’s about the battens?
In big boats I have seen folds along the inner end of the battens. The only solution was to buy a new sail.

3

along the leech. the fold is bad almost verticle. right now i have the sail hanging in the bathroom. getting a steam bath everday. hoping to steam the fold away
cougar

4

ok people
I have been hanging my mainsail in the bathroom. ( 4 days) now. and the fold looks to be coming out. the only thing I am wondering is . my sail is Mylar. this stress fold?
will it stay the same. or go back to the way it was. with the fold coming back?
cougar:winking:

5

Hi Cougar

Something I learned from Larry Robinson for mylar sails: make an instrument like a ball-point pen, only with a slightly bigger ball or similar, from plastic or hard wood. Place crease, upside down, onto a resilient surface, such as a cutting mat, and carefully score over the crease, following it exactly from one end to the other. You are reversing it carefully… The size of the tip or ball should match the sharpness of the crease.

6

Like an applicator for Roll-on antiperspirant? I’m sure there are other objects like that (roll-on glue, etc. Otherwise, I think of a wooden ball with a hole through it for an axle, and a handle fashioned from a couple metal strips or one bent piece.

In any case. I think that ‘hanging’ a sail would only make vertical creases worse. I think it would be better to lay it flat or even sandwich between two soft surfaces(like foam) with a little pressure.

What about a little heat, like from a sealing iron covered with a sock?

7

Cougar,
If the all else fails, you could consider simply cutting the fold off & replacing the entire roach with new material using double sided sail tape. Considering that these are old sails anyway, you might even be able to improve the sail shape by flattening the roach. BTW, what sort of fabric are the sails made of? Mylar, Dacron, Tri spi?
Regards,
Bill