My old Aussie II (or Ocean 500) model yacht really could use a new set of sails to get back into working condition. The main is so stetched that the clew hits the deck! and never mind the jib.
The question I have is would it be better to get custom sails made, or should I just cut the sails to the shape that would fit the rig, reinforce thenew corners/edges, and hope it’ll work.
The problem with new sails is that the original sails are fully printed with graphics to look like those of a real 12 metre boat with kevlar fibres and the kit had AC class decals to stick on the cloth, including the boat number, US-77.
I am leaning toward some new trispi-type sails, like the 507 Footy has. Can anyone recommend a place to get some?
There’s a sailmaker neareby and I can get some Tripspi 25 from there. I can use it for this model and Footies too?
can you explain what “use the existing sails as a pattern looks under film” means? Cut the panels according to the old 12M sail maybe? It’s not the usual straight panel job like a 1m. It would be nice to dye the mylar to a colour close to the Cuben Fiber sails.
the picture below is the best example of the panelling
theer should have been a comma in the sentence.
use the old sails for a pattern, look under films at hangemhigh…
I know it would look cool to have the sail look like the ones on the real boat, but that alot of work…
i think the tri 25 would be heavy. I have tri15 on my odom… and its plenty light… for a footy I’d hate to go heavier.
although if you take a 12 pack to the sail maker, he may let you go through the scrap pile… and you could make a buch of RC sails from scraps form the big boats…
I was thinking of new sails for my ODOM lately, and I thought of cutting up the old ones for the Footy; those are TriSpi 25 and might work, but are kind of dried out, wrinkled (built 2001) and torn a few times.
It’s just not enough for 5 or 6 rigs, plus the Aussie II.
Suppose you want to buy some sail material like TriSpi. Usually it comes in 48 or 54 inch-wide sizes. It might be advantageous for the supplier to cut off a slice that would be enough for one or two suits of sails for a Footy, or something small, like my Ocean 500. And maybe even include some of the reinforcing tape for the corners?
That would be a slice of 10" - 12" wide, and either 24" - 27" long, so you’d get to make one suit, bermuda-style (is 12" wide enough for a McRig?)
Would that work for ya’ll?
the reason is that the sailmaker ships sails in 42 inch boxes, but if there is enough of a demand, then he could stock some flat mailers for the small panels.
Good news. I tried using Rit dye. I boiled the panels in the Rit for about ten minutes. It took the dye quite well.
Bad news. For some reason the sail tape won’t hold on the dyed sails. I have had a seam pop apart in the sail box when everything was slack. Very strange. I ended up sewing all the seams.
It is pretty amazing that the dye impregnated the trispi… even the sharpie won’t impregnate the tri. you can still get sharpie off with rubbing alcohol or car polish…
I talked to my sailmaker, and he agreed to sell me a yard of the TriSpi 25 for Footies. The yard will be cut up into 12" slices, and each slice would be cut in half to make 12" x 27" pieces. Six pieces should make about six suits of sails.
Along with that he agreed to send me some reinforcing material scraps of whatever colour to make up a 12 x 12 block.
I will be getting a quote soon, but I think the TriSpi is about $15 a yard, the reinforcing stuff about $1, and a few $$ for the shipping .
He seemed agreeable to my suggestion that he sell TriSpi 25 to Footy builders, two pieces of 12"x27", and maybe throw in a few scraps of the reinforcing stuff. He just doesn’t have the shipping boxes /tubes for it right now, unless he gets some orders for it…
Darn. I need to get kite tape. :scared: I have some tape for insulating windows (9mm wide)
and you could make a buch of RC sails from scraps form the big boats…