During a coffee break discussion on r/c sailing - a few comments by two builders touched on the issues of scaling from a real boat to a small r/c boat and problems resulting if one were to apply the reduction (or enlargement) equally to all measurements.
At the end of our break, and after going back to work - I began to wonder if scaling effect holds true for sail seams?
Most double-sided adhesive tape used for joining seams of sail panels is approximately 1/4 inch wide (approx. 6+ mm) and is probably just the right width for seams for bigger sized r/c boats (1 meter and larger). Meanwhile, we use the same tape to build paneled sails for our much smaller boats - 36/600, RG65 and even Footys. It would seem that the tape and material overlap for the panel seams should be reduced in width - but trying to cut the tape into thinner widths seems to be impractical and/or extremely difficult.
Does this wider width matter? I feel since it is wider it almost becomes a “soft” full length batten - adding a 1/4 inch strip of double thickness sail material at each seam.
Has anyone else thought about, discussed or even cared about a wider sail seam when building the smaller sails? Does anyone cut tape thinner, and what is your method to assure straight cuts when splitting the width of the tape?
I would be interested in hearing thoughts, opinions and even facts on this subject. Perhaps the “out-of-scale” ratio doesn’t make a difference… or maybe it does.
Thoughts anyone?