Anybody use this before?
Open source for creating sails…
Description:
<blockquote id=“quote”><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Arial, Helvetica” id=“quote”>quote:<hr height=“1” noshade id=“quote”>Sailcut CAD is a sail design and plotting software which allows you to design and visualise your own sail and compute the accurate development of all panels in flat sheets. The original Sailcut was a Visual Basic program developped by Robert Lain?. The new version, called Sailcut CAD, is developped jointly by Robert and Jeremy Lain? and is distributed under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL).<hr height=“1” noshade id=“quote”></blockquote id=“quote”></font id=“quote”>
I’ve used it too.
To me it seems thou, that the main issue when making sails is not just to find a decent cut, but to actually stitch the sail in a way that you don’t screw that cut up.
I designed a set of sails for my 1,3m cat and then tried to stitch it by following the lines. Which was very unprecise and hard to control. So i went back to the block method and tried to stitch the sailplan using the sailmaking block. This turned out cumbersome since the block shape and the sailcut layout are hard to match up.
I basically returned to the blocks again…
Edit:
Jean Margail wrote me a while ago that he is building his sails using sailcut. They are for a 2M cat, so the tolerances on this scale are maybe a bit higher. He seems to be very happy with it. http://water.resist.free.fr/Anglais/Home.htm
I agree,the block method is much more effective.
I am yet to be able to take 2 very slightly curved panels and join them accuratly.
The block method produces more accurate and predictable shapes IMHO
Brett
Guys , Guys , this is the twenty first century, have we not heard of double sided tape 6 mm wide. I have gone from stitching sails to no stitch at all and they look great, no fold-over seams, no bulky sail seams. If you must stitch put double sided tape on first and then sew.
well, I am no pro at all with sailsmaking, but heres something I experienced this weekend with the double side tape, they just dont held together anymore…maybe a set of sail can “live” only for a certain time?
What are the pros saying?
-Wis (aka Laurent)
<font size=“1”>_/ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! _</font id=“size1”>
When I write stitch, I mean: get the shape with double sided Tape and then stitch over it to fix it. If you only use double sided tape, the glue will start to slip under load and the sail will loose shape.
At least that is what I experienced…
The double sided tape and/or glue is an interesting project… how long does it hold? The above comment about them failing is the first that I have seen… but something I have wondered about.
I have sails from Graham Bantock that are taped or glued and are several years old and there is no indication what so ever of delamination.
More and more I see sails that contain no stitching what so ever and they seem to be hanging in there. Back in the OLD days we would use about a 1/16th wide doublesided tape to hold the panels togther and then stitch over the tape, but if your needle hit the tape the adhesive from the tape would foul the needle and cause problems later on as it accumulated when you did it again. There are still sails out there that will need to be sewn because of the material type so at least the art won’t die out. [:-baseball]
I know what you mean, my needles regularly get jammed and brake.
I guess the tape failing is more of an issue with fully battened sail, since there is more tension on them.
Nevertheless, i have seen standard sails - that hadn’t been stitched - loose shape after sailing in the sun for an hour or so. When the glue on the tape gets warm, it behaves like bubble gum…
If you wish to “over stitch” your taped sails with a sewing machine, just have a bottle of rubbing/denatured alcohol and a small cotton ball or cloth handy. After sewing about 2 inches or so through tape, wipe the needle down with alcohol to remove glue build-up. I have been able to go about 6-8 inches or so before needing to wipe, but that is an experiment you will need to try on some scrap material. Also helps to keep the length of stitch fairly long (distance between stitches) as I use it only for holding tape to material. Note that tape may have different amounts of adhesive on it from one roll (batch) to another. Also age of tape and how long it has been sitting on dealer’s shelf makes a big difference on how well it sticks. My guess is that there is also a factor of how smooth/glossy the sail material is on how well the tape will hold.
Dick Lemke
F-48 #US-06
MultiONE #US-06
Class 3 Landyacht #US-196
Minnesota, USA
I have always used “3M 9460” double sided tape, to join Mylar sail panels, and have never had a problem with slippage. The tape was designed to join Mylar if I remember correctly, and it?s impossible to get panels apart once together. I have thrown out more than a few partially finished sails, because I lined up the panels wrong.
I enjoy sailing a Robinson M7 Marblehead. Mr Robinson of Australia was in partnership or something with Mr Waliki some years ago and they produced some really fine boats. All the sails are made with tape and no stitching. The little toggles/beads that hold the luffs are also glued on to the sail including the clew patches as well. Now these boats are quite old (about 15 years old) and from time to time the panels , through age of the double back tape, do come apart. I just put the sail on the bench, pull the joint apart and replace the DS tape. Now we sail open water in Sydney and it can be come quite windy. I have not broken a sail with a seam letting go. I’m Sold.