Sailmakers Apprentice

THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE 3A. GUIDE FOR THE SELF=RELIANT SAILOR Se 4 x z Wu otek a \ Ieee oa Rome et a enn Eee IANO MARINO ( ILLUSTRATED BY \ > A o CHRISTINE ERIKSON \ 3} ; f International Marine 7Contents ‘TABLES vii PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION xi A Ditty Bag Apprenticeship + 1 TOOLS 3 * MATERIALS 7 * CUTTING, FOLD- ING, AND MARKING THE CLOTH @ * SEWING 9 * FINISHWORK 14 © Sailing, Hulls, and Sails » 28 WHERE ONESAILS 29 * ERGONOMICS 31 © THEHULL 31 © HELM BALANCE 33 * Rigs and Sails + 38 RIGTYPES 38 * THESQUARE RIG 39 © THE LUGRIG 40 * THEGUNTERRIG 46 * THE SPRITRIG 49 * THESPRITBOOM RIG 53 * ‘THE WISHBONE RIG 54 * THE FULL-BATTEN RIG 57 * THEBATWINGRIG 50 * THE GAFF RIG 59 * THEBERMUDAN RIG * THE LATEEN RIG AND THESETTEE RIG 65 * THE POLYNESIAN CLAWRIG 67 * SAIL TYPES * WORKING SAILS 68 © AUXILIARY SAILS 78 * STORMSAILS 94 * RIDING SAILSAND STEADYING SAILS 99 * SAIL RIGCONFIGU- RATIONS 99 * CATRIG 100 * SLOOPRIG 101 * DOUBLE-HEADSAIL, SINGLE-MASTED RIGS 103 * DOUBLE-MASTED CATS 103 * KETCH 105 * YAWL 107 * SCHOONER 108 ‘= BIG-BOAT RIG CONFIGURATIONS 110 « Sail Shapes and Theory + 113 LIFT 113 * SEPARATION, DRAG, AND EDGE VORTICES 115 * SAILSHAPE 117 * SAIL TRIM 123 * SAILINTERACTION 125 * SAIL MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION 128 How Sails Are Made » 129 ‘THE BUSINESS OF SAILMAKING 129 * THE PRINCIPLES OF SAIL DESIGN 131 * THE SAILMAKING PROCESS 146 * SAILMAKING MATERIALS 150 * THE TOOLS OF THE SAIL- MAKER 188 * Making Your Own Sails + 215 OBTAINING MEASUREMENTS 215 * DESIGNING A SAIL 229 * LOFTING ANDSEAMING THESAIL 275 * INSTALLING u CLOTH REINFORCEMENTS 299 * FINISH- WORK 310 * CHECKING OUT YOUR SAIL. 352 = SAIL ALTERATIONS AND ADJUST- 12 MENTS 353 * 7 Sail Fittings: “Hardware” and “Software” » 371 FITTINGS WITHIN SAILS 371 * FITTINGS SEIZED TO SAILS 372 * RIGGING FITTINGS 376 * 8 Sail Care and Maintenance + 377 PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE 377 * SAIL STORAGE 381 * TANBARKING AND THE PRESERVATION OF SAILS 385 * 9 Sail Repair and Restoration « 387 DAMAGE ASSESSMENT 387 © THE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE KIT 388 * MAKING REPAIRS 389 * 10 Buying New or Used Sails « 400 BUYING NEWSAILS 400 * BUYING USED SAILS 405 © SURVEYING USED SAILS 408 © Sailbags and Sailcovers + 419 SAILBAGS 420 * SAILCOVERS 424 « Sail Handling, Trim, and Adjust- ment + 439 BENDING A SAIL 439 * SETTING A SAIL 440 © SAILTRIM 447 © SAILSHAPE 449 « GETTING THE MOST OUT OF A GAFE RIG 452 * SAILREDUCTION 458 * SAILCON- ‘TROL AND MANAGEMENT 461 * APPENDIXA Glossary 466 = APPENDIX B Sailmakers, Riggers, Brokers, and Cleaners 472 * APPENDIX C Sources of Materials 474 = APPENDIX D Bibliography 477 * APPENDIXE Other Sources of Information 480 * INDEX 482 =Tables Table 4-1. Aspect Ratio, Sail Materials, Sail Con- struction, and Sail Shaping Options Table 5-1, Sail Cloth Tradeoffs ‘Table 5-2. Dacron Finishes and Specs ‘Table 5-3A. Sati/USA Dacron Cloth Constructions Table 5-3B. Dacron Cloth Applications— Mainsails Table 5-3C. Dacron Cloth Applications— Headsails Table 5-4. Sail Cloth Widths Table 5-5. Sail Twine Sizes and Applications Table 5-6. Machine Thread Uses ‘Table 5-7, Hole Cutter and Die Sizes Table5-8. Sail Batten Types and Applications ‘Table 5-9. Braided Dacron Leechcord Sizes and Applications Table5-10, Sewing Machine Needle Sizes Table 6-1, Typical Proportions of Selected Sail ‘Types Table 6-2, Suggested Cloth Uses ‘Table 6-3. Suggested Seam Widths ‘Table 6-4. Suggested Boltrope/ Luff Rope Sizes, Materials, and Constructions Table 6-5. Suggested Reef-Point Specifications Table 6-6, Commercially Available Dacron Luft Tapes Table 6-7. Luff Tape Sizes for Grooved Headstays Table 6-8. Tabling Sizes and Applications Table 6-9. Headboard Sizes and Applications Table 6-10. Conventional Batten Allocations ‘Table 6-11. Suggested Draft Positions for Initiat- ing Luff Tapers Table 6-12. Luff Taper (Broadseam) Widths Table 6-13. Rough Guide to Corner Hardware Selection ‘Table 6-14. Cast Bronze Head Thimble Applica- tions Table 6-15. Eyelet Selection Table 10-1. Sail Survey Checklist ‘Table 12-1. The Sail Doctor's Chart of Symptoms, Diagnoses, and Remedies Table 12-2. Devices That Influence Sail Shape Through Corner Tension ‘Table 12-3. Devices That Influence Sail Shape by Pushing Cloth into a Sail or Pulling It Out ‘Table 12-4. Gaff Rig Sail AdjustmentsPreface LTHOUGH I BEGAN WORK on The Sailmak- ers Apprentice sixteen years ago, it would be a mess o' galley whispers to suggest that its creation has been a concerted sixteen-year effort. Rather, it has been an intermittent process marked by set- backs, diversions, some lucky breaks, and much encouragement from family and friends. So fid out your earholes while I spin a bit of a yarn about the process. wrote the pieces of this book in pretty much the same sequence in which they now appear, although recently acquired facts, updates, and inspirations were inserted in later drafts of the manuscript. Portions of The Sailmaker's Apprentice are reprints of material originally published in WoodenBoat magazine under my adoptive name, Malcolm Wehncke. More recently, I became “the Sail Doctor” for a question-and-answer column in ‘Small Boat journal magazine. That column and other pieces reprinted here were published under the stage name and nom de plume Malcolm Howes. I then entered a whole new life by finding my birth parents, their families, and my biological heritage. I have since woven a new identity for myself that has incorporated not only my family heritages but also my chosen name, Emiliano Marino. remain one of the many sailors who sees sail- ing as a means of holding onto a natural interac- tion with the earth and its elements. There are sail- makers who still practice the old ways of building sails—ways that, comparatively speaking, placed humans in balance with nature. I invite you, my apprentice, to seek that balance too by taking up the needle and palm, and by ploughing the oceans of the earth under sail, hearing the wind, with wings you've made yourself with your own magic and your own hands. Emiliano Marino World CitizenAcknowledgments 0 THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation and grati- tude for their care, support, and contributions to my life as a sailor, sailmaker, and author. In particular, { must thank: John Foster, friend and sailor, for his unswerving devotion to me and my projects; Grant Gambell, sailmaker, for his patience, good humor, and generous sharing of sailmaking expertise; Christine Erikson, the illus- trator, for her impeccable skill in rendering the details of sails, sailing, and sailmaking so inti- mately that one can almost taste, feel, and smell the subject; Robin Lincoln, sailmaker, for her love, partnership, and dedication to the launching of our respective sailmaking careers; Jon Eaton, friend, editor, and sailor, for his faith and willing- ness to revitalize this project and for his patience and good humor while serving as editor, advisor, mediator, and salesman throughout a prolonged literary birth. Amber Abe Baggins ‘Tom Baker Carl Barus David N. Barus Jane Garey Barus Maxwell Barus Pamela Benner Lindy Brooking Matt Brown Paddy Bruce Challenge Sailcloth, Inc. (Bob Bainbridge, Carter Clark, Terry Cronburg) Francisco Chaves Saenz y Familia Dorathy Chocensky Eva John T. Fallon Amy Fischer Carol Hasse Brad Hunter David Jackson ‘Senator Edward M. Kennedy Roberto Laingelet Richard Lebovitz ‘Sam and Susan Manning Mariposa Anne Maxtone-Graham Paul Mitchell Grace Niniane Moondog Moses Selkie O'MiraBrad Pease Mike Pease Patricia Pease ‘The Phillip Garey Fund Janet Robbins Anne Seeley David Seeley THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE Barry Spanier Peter Spectre Roger C. Taylor Brion Toss Jane Ellen Wehneke John Wehncke Jon WilsonIntroduction HIS BOOK IS AN EXTENSION OF ME. I make no bones about my being a writer. lam not. An entertainer perhaps, but a writer no. A writer, a wordsmith, can make a literary creation concern- ing any subject whether it interests him or her per- sonally or not. I can't do that. Ineed some source of, inspiration. I doubt I could even set down any thoughts about sails and sailing, subjects of con- siderable interest to me, were it not that I am not merely recording dry fact and observation; | am recording much of my philosophy, my aspirations, and my heritage. Ido not offer this confession apologetically, nor is this book about me. I will endeavor not to trot out my personal preferences and beliefs so fre- quently as to harass, intimidate, or bore the reader. Nonetheless, the information, assertions, and per- spectives of this book are all organized, discussed, explored, and illustrated in light of my personal outlook on sails, sailmaking, and sailing. Thad the extraordinary good fortune to be adopted at the age of five months by a family who, on my adoptive mother’s side, were descendants of along line of seafaring ancestors. From the union of Thomas Howes and Mary Burr, who arrived on what is now called Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1635, there came successive generations of Howes, many of whom were involved in the maritime trades. It was Captain Frederick Howes of Brewster, for instance, who invented the Howes Patented Close-reefing Topsail. His and other tops'l shorten ing arrangements, which divided the formerly sin- gle square-rigged tops'l into two smaller, handier sails, were quickly refined and almost overnight universally adopted by square-rigged vessels. Iwas my great-great-great-grandfather Osborn Howes, son ofa ship captain, and a captain himself by the age of twenty-two, who, with his brother- in-law Nathan Crowell, formed the renowned Howes and Crowell shipping firm of Boston in 1838. The nautical heritage involving Osborn Howes and his eldest son, Isaiah, had a great influence upon me. This book's illustrator and I shared resi- dence with the last surviving grandchild of Isaiah Howes, Howes family lore has enchanted me since my earliest recollections: sea stories passed down; early prints, paintings, and then photographs; tales of square-rigged merchant vessels sailing under the Howes and Crowell flag, with its red star ona white field; fantastic yarns of life at sea. A consid- erable part of my youth was spent in the house which Osborn Howes was born. Still in the family’s possession were antiques brought back from voy- ages to the Orient. Howes ingenuity and skill under sail did notTHE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE The Howes close-reefing tops'l. adapt well to the inexorable advance of steam- powered transport. The sun slowly set on the Howes and Crowell flag as it did on sail-driven freighters in general. Nonetheless, the twentieth- century Howes descendants carried on certain tra- ditions of nautical competence with a passion. ‘Iwas taught to sail in handsome wooden boats ‘on Bass River, Cape Cod. Auxiliary motors were dis- dained. Nautical prowess was esteemed both on the race course and in voyaging. Only in a dead calm, on an outgoing tide, with the gnats gnawing mercilessly would we even consider resorting to oar or paddle if it was at all possible to make the mooring under saill And don't think we got a whole lot of sympathy when we arrived home late and festooned with gnat bites! Foolhardiness and bliss- ful arrogance with respect to the elements and the capabilities ofa boat were sternly discouraged. The skills of reefing, navigation, and marlinspike workINTRODUCTION xiii were highly regarded. We learned weather lore and observed the tides. We were taught respect for our craft, how to sail in safety, how to properly stow gear and the boat, and how to care for sails. Most of my feelings and many of my attitudes about sailboats and sailing were formed in this Bass River, Cape Cod, environment—a familial sit- uation fostered and maintained primarily by my grandparents, both of whom were direct descen- dants of Osborn Howes. I am sure that my strong sense of appreciation for the fine lines and shapes of a well-proportioned hull and rig developed when I was a child. Unforgettable are the smells of varnish, hemp, manila line, wet cotton sailcloth, tarred marline, and salt water in a wooden bilge. I remember distinctly being small enough toxiv THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE crawl under the foredeck of an 18-foot Wianno Jr. in order to escape the cold spray coming in over the weather rail. There in my safe, dry “cabin” could feel the motion of the hull as it plowed through the afternoon chop kicked up by the pre- vailing so'westerly breeze on Nantucket Sound. I could hear the slosh, whoosh, and chum of water rushing by a wooden hull. Back again in the shel- tered waters of the river, that din would change to an inimitable gurgle, a sound made only by the gentle action of wavelets against wood. Huddled down there alongside the stop bucket, bilge pump, spare oar, boathook, anchor, rode, and spare line, I could look aft and observe the han- dling of the boat: the raising and lowering of the centerboard, the trimming of sheets, the tiller steering. I was often cold and wet but never fright- ened. More sounds: the slat of sails, the soft patter of reef nettles, “Ready abooout! Hard aleee!” So many sensual delights and thrills! There is no taste comparable to that obtained by sucking the salt water out of a sopping wet lifejacket lacing. Nor is there any sound quite like that of a gong buoy clanging at sea. And where can one find a complete and utter contrast to rival that of finally putting up helm and running downwind; the change in motion, sounds, action, warmth, and spray? Inacouple of years I became too big to fit under the foredeck. Then there were the wild afternoons sitting astride the stemhead fitting, riding the plunging prow as the little sloop pitched and nosed through South Shore waves. I clutched the forestay firmly with both hands as water sloshed aft across the foredeck, over the coaming, and down the side- decks. [was then, and still am, filled with awe when looking over the transom down onto the wake of a ‘moving sailboat. 1am enchanted and captivated by the smooth, powerful eddies of water as they well up from the depths. From a small child launched into this nautical world, it was not long before I was at the helm. Now sailor myself, I further developed an appreciation for the forces and happenings I'd formerly recog- nized only as feelings and perceptions. I began to give analytical thought to the harmony and inter- action of hull, rig, and sail, with each other and with wind and water. The forms, sounds, and smells became associated with functions. There would be many ways in the future to accomplish a particular nautical endeavor—preserve a spar, drop and weigh anchor, cleat a centerboard pen- dant, rig a boat, build a sail—but inevitably I'd find myself drawn back to the early sense of aesthetics and character with which I'd been imbued. ‘That is what sailing remains for me in great part: the feelings derived from the parts and from the whole. In addition to that, I delight in the mechan- ical challenge of sailing, the challenge of beating odds, of sailing the most efficient course, the thrill of making flawless, spectacular landings under sail ina crowded anchorage. And even more than that I obtain the greatest of pleasure and fulfillment from accomplishing something under sail, performing some task. I feel a greater sense of meaningful endeavor when I am sailing with a purpose beyond diversion and entertainment. [like few things bet- ter than the feel of powerful movement through the water, but | am not enthralled by the pursuit of speed for its own sake and none other. Perhaps it was New England tradition, or maybe my own obstinacy, and surely my economic cir- cumstances and passion for self-sufficiency that Jed me to prefer sailing as independently and self- reliantly as possible. I wanted to be able to handle and maintain everything on board my vessel myself—even build most of it. In the event there was something I had neither the time nor ability to do, I felt I should have a seagoing trade to barter for the necessary goods or services. With that in mind, and the notion that a seafar- ing life offered freedom and a natural lifestyle, I set out for San Diego, California, in search of oppor- tunities. There I had the good fortune to fall in with two sailor/ sailmakers who were willing to take me on, first as a rigging associate and then as a sail- making apprentice. This was providential not only from the standpoint that someone in the business of making sails was willing to work with me at all, but that their loft produced durable, reliable sails, that voyaging sailors could maintain at sea. ThisINTRODUCTION ‘was no hemp and pine tar place, but, utilizing con- temporary materials, they were making seaworthy sails with traditional hand-finishing techniques. My heart, soul, and abilities fit in. Perhaps that’s why they let me stay. Not long thereafter I started my own sail loft in Costa Rica, undertaking sail and rigging work for all sorts of vessels from sailboards to square- riggers. I saw boats, sailors, and sails from all over the globe. I saw everything from the ancient and traditional in sail materials and sail construction to the latest and most modern. I saw craft that were the product of skilled design, manufacture, and maintenance, and others that were absolute make- do, seat-of-the-pants nautical concoctions. | ob- served the most up-to-date nautical electronic know-how and I saw bungling dead reckoning by street map! And I came to know from my own experience and that of so many other sailors what works in a sail and what does not. Storm, calm, heat, cold, sun, corrosion, constant use, chafe, stress, time, and more stress all took their toll. Costa Rica was far enough from anyplace else sails were made that, by the time a sailboat would arrive at the popular Central American port of Puntare- nas, the durability of its sails had been well tested. Things took on a new slant. What had formerly been an aesthetic, philosophical, and theoretical ‘approach to sailmaking became also practical. It did not take long to fetch up on an unhappy discovery. In the United States and in other parts of, the world, the average undiscerning “cruising” sailor was consistently being sold sails of poor quality. It would be comparable to selling a sky- diver a parachute built to self-destruct in mid- descent! To extend the analogy: If the parachutist had the presence of mind to attempt a repair of his tattered brolly during the ensuing plummet, hed find that the chute had been constructed of mate- rials not normally found in the average skydiver's repair kit, with mechanical laborsaving techniques that could not be reworked. Caveat nauticus! ‘And that is really how this book began. In its early fetal life it was a pamphlet entitled “The Sail- maker's Dozen,” a consumer's guide to sail con- struction that I passed out to sailors who put in to Puntarenas. It was a polemic; I was enraged by the swindle. Some sailmakers’ victims actually thought I must be a landshark strategically located there, post-"papagayo,” to rake in the dolares repairing or replacing their sails—their new sails—which despite all the assurances and promises of the maker were now a wreck! These sails, upon which people's lives depended, were consistently falling apart in a predictable manner. Lam stil, fifteen years later, angered by the hype and ethics of the production sailmaking industry, and I mourn the general loss of traditional skill andxvi THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE artistry in sailmaking. Furthermore, I deplore a wasteful, thrill-seeking, exploitative economy of sails and sailing, so lacking in foresight except where making a bigger and faster buck is con- cerned. Ido not wish to alienate you by my ranting and raving about the shortcomings of mass-production ‘sailmaking and boatbuilding. Nor will I risk offend- ing you with pusillanimous platitudes, the jargon of the overbearing traditionalist, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What people choose to spend their money on, even if they knowingly choose “economy” over safety, is their own business (as Jong as I am not aboard). Undiscerning and com- pulsive consumers will always find a sailmaker, or whoever, to sell them something at the “right price.” ‘There are, fortunately, a few artisans in the busi- ness of making sails who, while working in synthe- tic materials too, nonetheless continue to employ time-honored sailmaking principles and tech- niques. These humans rely primarily on acquired knowledge, personal experience, and their own brains and memories to create a suit of sails. Some of these people may have business and money- making acumen as well, but they all are making sails the way they do because they inherited or adopted a personal interest in the skill, artistry, and aesthetics involved. If they had not, they surely would not persist in trying to survive by making sails in a manner that by modern lights is archaic, anachronistic, and obsolete. ‘Now, and in the years to come, every voyaging sailboat will require a manageable number of high- quality sails of versatile design and function, and made of materials compatible with those requi- sites. For these, for seaworthy daysailers, and for classic small boats with their time-honored rigs, the techniques of this book are of particular rele- vance. Trecognize that more of you will repair, alter, or reinforce sails than will make them. The making of sails, ike sailing itself, is hard work. At the same time, sailmaking is an art from which one can derive considerable pleasure and fulfillment, notto mention seagoing self-reliance. It is my fervent desire that this book, with its unique holistic approach to the subject, will open doors of appre- ciation, creativity, and resourcefulness, for the practical and adventurous sailor as well as the aspiring sailmaker. Itis all connected: the sailor, the purpose for sailing, conditions, hull type, rig type, sail type, sail shape, sail materials and con- struction. I urge you to follow the deductive path, apply reasoning to your own situation, and, most important, to enjoy the process. Take delight in the act as well as the accomplishment of meeting your seafaring and general sailing needs. ANote on Gender Despite the fact that sexism in the sailing world is still going strong, a growing number of nautical artisans are women. Rarely is the serious participa- tion of women in nautical endeavors acknowl- ‘edged, even though women are the equal of men under sail, and there are skilled, competent women in all the maritime trades including the making of sails. ‘The traditional language of the sea is archaic in this regard (s0 much for die-hard traditionalism): It excludes women. Sailmaking and sail repair is not “women’s work" by virtue of its involving sewing, any more than itis “men’s work” by virtue of its being a business. Sailing is everyone's work! I'm afraid I don't care for the substitution or insertion of the word “person” in order to neuter a term, and substituting the word “woman” to make “seawomanlike,” for example, does not produce a term which the Bard would say flows trippingly over the tongue. Absent from this book unless liter- ally appropriate will be such terms as seaman, seamanlike, man this and that, seamanship, sea- ‘womanship, and so forth. Rest assured: Sailing and sailmaking are equally domains of women.I A Ditty Bag Apprenticeship EE HOW SHE SCHOONS! Cutting a feather in four-lower breeze, sails filling in powerful curves and pulling like the muscles of a draft horse with a heavy load; sails straining under the relent- less force of the wind! By moonrise, the wind’s diminished to a whisper—hardly a ripple on the water as she ghosts slowly along under light sails; great cloth phantoms tranquilly billowing in the moonlight. Orin an oily calm, the limp cloth slats and slams from side to side, awaiting the day when it might explode from its boltropes under the force of a howling gale and be lashed and beaten to useless shreds. Harmony and discord in the marriage of wind, wave, wood, and cloth. Cloth is admirable for both what it is and what it does. First a fiber, spun into thread and woven into aworkable, versatile, yet vulnerable fabric, cloth is made into sails, the soul and salvation of the sailing, boat. Cloth is a remarkable material; it comes only as a long strip to begin with and is dynamic by nature. Someone has to cut and assemble the pieces, control or compensate for the cloth’s insta- bilities, provide a means of attaching things to it, and, of course, maintain the finished article. No two ways about it, the ability to work with cloth, synthetic or natural, is fundamental to sailing. The sailing ship's onboard ability to deal with the various elements upon which its survival depended was once an absolute necessity, and there were always men aboard capable of handl- ing the various materials, not the least of whom was the sailmaker. He was not alone in working with canvas; even the greenest hand had to take up needle and palm when there was extensive work to be done, Seafaring people ashore, out of geographical or economic necessity, had no less a need to be self-sufficient in the manufacture and repair of the sails for the boats with which they earned their livelihood. Those Johnny New- combes whoid assist the seagoing sailmaker were often initiated into the sailor’ arts by the making of a ditty bag. Those small bags were sometimes elaborately and intricately finished, thus offering a means of self-expression and furnishing some- thing to occupy idle hands and to keep the mind alive. To launch you in your apprenticeship, we are going to teach you about the ditty bag, help you gather together the tools you will need to make a ditty bag (and to use on your own for making and maintaining your sails), and then teach you to make the ditty bag itself, using techniques that will prepare you for many other tasks related to sail- making, repair, and maintenance. ‘The proposed ditty bag and its contents embodyTHE SAILMAKER'S APPRENTICE all sorts of abstract things as well as being a handy receptacle. But the skills! That's what you're really, after. Remember, it's not the bag alone. This ditty bag isa cloth article requiring all the basic sail- and canvaswork skills, and in this carefully handcrafted container are stored the very implements and materials used in its creation, All is then in readi- ness for sail- or canvaswork. You'll know every stitch! The economy of doing your own work should be apparent, and so too will be the practi- cality, because the tools are simple, portable, and relatively inexpensive. FIGUREI-1, The skills of the ditty bag. (a) Flat-stitched side seam (b) Flat-stitched rolled tabling (©) Flat-stitched reinforcement patches (a) Sticking stitch () Round stitch (P Worked eyelets (g) Eyelet seizings (h) Rope grommet (@ Roping stitch () Cringle and round thimble i) Sailmaker's eyesplice () Marline serving (mm) Flat seizing (n) Turk’s head sliderA DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP ‘The faint of heart might be heard to exclaim, “What about the sewing machine?” The sewing machine, in relation to this ditty bag, is like the relationship a motor has to the sails of a sailboat. Itcan substantially augment the ditty bag, but itis apoor substitute. There's no doubt about the time- saving capabilities of a sewing machine under favorable working conditions, but the sewing machine doesn't have the versatility, all-around capability, simplicity, and dependability of your hands, and the skills, techniques, and tools of this ditty bag apprenticeship. With the fade-out of the fossil fuel~eating engine, the return of cloth sail power isn't going to come for free. Sails are going to become even more expensive than they are now. Obviously, it behooves prudent seafarers to cast an anchor to windward and not only concentrate on sails and sailing, but become capable of making and maintaining those wings upon which their boats will fly. TOOLS Plainly, it's time to introduce the tools, but only those required to make the ditty bag. Other tools of sailwork are introduced in Chapter 5. Hands First and foremost, meet your hands! Whether they be more dexterous on the left or right doesn't mat- ter, except that most sailmaking instructions pre- sume the worker to be right-handed. That's not an insurmountable obstacle. For a left-hander, there are two options: perform everything from the opposite point of view, or teach yourself to work righty—whichever comes more easily. The Sailmaker’s Palm This is the indispensable tool with which the needle is pushed through the cloth. Waste not time nor money on the cheap models, or what is called a sailor's palm, as they are nearly use- FIGURE 1-2 AGES3-4), Sailmaker’s palms.THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE LEFT-HANDED ROPRIG PALM & Rormg eye SEAMING EYE. FIGURE 1-2. (cont.) less and will not encourage you to sew. Seek instead a high-quality sailmaker’s palm of fin- ished leather and rawhide, a stout article firmly stitched. ‘There are two principal types of palms, both of which are essential, depending upon the job to be undertaken. The seaming palm is for sewing seams, tablings, and patching, and has an eye with ‘small indentations to take the head of the smaller needles used in those and other finer operations. The roping palm is for the stouter work of sewing a boltrope to a sail, and has an eye with large indentations for the needles required in roping and other heavy work. In addition, the roping palm has a protective piece about the thumb hole so that a stitch can be hove home without the thread cutting, the worker's hand. Both palms are highly personal tools. Ideally, they are custom made for your hand only, or at least have been altered from a production version: so that they are best suited to your hand and sewing techniques. The “public palm,” while better than nothing, is an abomination. Worse yet is the ham-handed nozzer’s disrespectful attempt to cram his hand into someone's carefully fitted and broken-in palm. Make the palm fit your hand. Ifit’s too small to begin with, its worthless to you anyway. A big palm can be reduced to some extent and the fit can be adjusted with the addition of leather padding. The palm and your hand become one. Fit it. Wet it. Work with it. Oil it. Then work more with it—and don't share! Needles Sail needles are triangular in section with the edges rounded so that the needle separates rather than severs the threads of the cloth as it enters and passes through. The thickness, or gauge, of the nee- dle to be used depends upon the size of the thread oo ] ~ ™ 3 A ANE ED» aoc Boake. “eS 7 acon FIGURE 1-3. Relative sizes and cross sections of sail needles. The No. 18 is 2/4 inches long: the No. 9, 4 inches.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP required in the sewing and the nature of the mate- rial sewn, Usually, the two requirements coincide, but not always. Synthetic sail twine, because of its great strength, can be smaller than cotton thread for a given application, but your needle should always be sized according to the cloth it has to pen- etrate. Matching the needle to the smaller thread may result in breakage. Aboard ship there is use for ail sizes. Therefore each size should be on hand, and it would be wise to have a few extra of the smaller or more fre- quently used needles. Sail needles in the smaller sizes break occasionally, and even the larger ones can be bent under the strain of heavy work. Nothing makes sewing more tedious than a dull or dirty needle. Needles can be kept sharp with a FIGURE 1-4. Two ordinary knives adapted for sail- ‘and canvaswork. The upper isa leatherworker's knife, the lower, a common kitchen knife with the tip ground to a sheep's-foot point. razor hone or sharpening steel. Sail needles are wonderful little tools, but they will rust at the mere mention of the word moisture, especially at sea. Keep them oiled or greased and stored in an air- tight container! Knife ‘The knife is probably the most versatile tool in the bag. Within the realms of sail- and marlinspike work, ithas many uses and can satisfactorily stand in for tools such as scissors and hole cutters. Whether clasp or sheath knife, a blade with a rounded back, sheep’s-foot point, and V-ground blade is best. Homemade or store-bought, the knife must be of good steel, kept clean, oiled, and sharp as a razor. This knife must never be asked to do anything but cut cloth, twine, or cordage. Sailhook The needle-sharp steel sailhook (also called a stretching hook ot bench hook), with its swivel and 5- or 6-foot lanyard, facilitates various forms of sewing by holding the cloth in the desired manner so that tension can be applied and cloth layers kept in line, flat and immobilized. Sailhooks, bought or made, must be protected from rust just like nee- dies and knives. Fids ‘These come in an infinite variety and are used to expand, open, and ream things. They open the strands of a rope in splicing, or shape and smooth the inside of a handsewn ring, They make holes in cloth and stretch cringles prior to the insertion of FIGURE 1-5. The saithook—the sailmaker’s third hand. Note the scorpion stingerlike point with shoulders, which prevents the hook from goring the cloth with a large hole.THE SAILMAKER'S APPRENTICE FIGURE 1-6. Two fids of rosewood, ebony, lignum vitae, or a similar hardwood. The smaller is 12 inches long, the larger, 18 inches. FIGURE 1-7. A traditional seam rubber carved from black locust. around thimble. They are usually made of a hard- ‘wood such as lignum vitae, and one can get by with two of them, a small one and one that is moder- ately large. Seam Rubber Your own creation out of hardwood, this tool is for creasing cloth as well as smoothing stitches. ‘The rounded knife back will serve, and really any hard smooth edge will do, but the seam rubber assures the job is done comfortably and consistently. Mechanical Pencil Notwithstanding the impression given by some sewing instructions, one can't expect to do all this clothwork without guidelines. Reference points are needed on the cloth. For marking the cloth, a mechanical pencil with a hard lead works best, and ‘one becomes accustomed to the shape of this pen- ciland learns to make the appropriate allowances consistently. Lines and marks must be visible, but yet not smudge.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP Push Pins and Awls Push pins and awls come in handy for holding the cloth while it’s laid out and marked. Many dozens of push pins would not be too many, but a half- dozen awis will suffice. They all rust, of course, and must be encased somehow. Measuring Tape Although there are successful ways of measuring without one, I recommend a 12-foot locking tape measure. It would seem as though you couldn't get along without it—but, of course, you can. It's pos- sible to make do with all sorts of objects as units of ‘measurement as long as you are consistent about it. Parts of the human body (your own) are the handi- est objects: arm span, foot length, hand's breadth, and others. Those measuring devices are difficult to misplace, fairly immutable, and they don't rust! In Addition If you're planning on getting into canvaswork beyond making a ditty bag and occasional sail repair, you'll want to consider adding the following tools to those listed above: * 50-foot measuring tape + heavy-duty scissors «heavy-duty diagonal cutters for removing seizings, brass liners, and pressed-in grommets + pliers for pulling needles stuck in heavy cloth * an electric hotknife for cutting and sealing unhemmed synthetic cloth edges «50 feet of %-inch nylon webbing for drawing curves + achalkline * astitch or seam ripper More than this we need not say until Chapter 5. For a clearer idea of what all these tools are like, you might visit a sailmaker and ask to see these things. With luck, he or she will be happy to show you. Pay attention, as the sailmaker who doesn't use these tools regularly doesn't make the kind of sail you could easily work on either, MATERIALS While you're there, you could ask to see, and maybe purchase, the following materials without which no ditty bag would be complete. Thread or Sail Twine The type of thread or sail twine you need de- pends on the nature and stature of the work. Three-ply and seven-ply spun polyester will cover most needs. You can always quadruple it. The thread must be as strong and durable as the fabric. Linen thread is nearly unobtainable; you can find cotton twine in the form of heavy machine thread. Synthetic thread is strongest and most easily found, It may be used to sew nat- ural fabric, but not generally the other way around. If you have braided line or continuous fila- ment three-strand polyester line, you've a source of sewing thread. Just cut a piece the appropri- ate length (remember it will be doubled through the needle) and unlay it down from strand to yarn to thread, and even to filament, to get the size twine desired. This source of twine is time- consuming but has the advantages of a wide range of thread and availability. It may be obtained at most boat shops, or, in an emer- gency, a length of sheet or halyard can be sacri- ficed. Beeswax Unless you area glutton for punishment, you really can't sew with thread unless it’s been waxed. Beeswax mixed with turpentine or pine tar makes thread more manageable and helps preserve nat- ural fibers. With synthetic fiber, it helps hold the two threads together while you work. I don't rec- ommend prewaxed thread; the spool is bulky and you always seem to need to wax the thread again anyway. To prepare yourself for sail repair and mainte- nance, you should also gather together the follow- ing items:Cloth ‘The cloth needed for sail repair is identical to that of which your sails are made. Now, whether you want to carry merely patching quantities or enough cloth for major surgery is a matter of per- sonal preference. I'd be prepared to repair a sail torn from luff to leech. Cloth for more than that wont fit in a bag, or even a locker, but the prudent bluewater sailor might consider the possibility of having enough to make entirely new sails at some point when materials aren't within UPS range. Seizing Line Used in various parts of a sail, itis often heavy sail twine that has been redoubled for extra strength. Italian tarred hemp yacht marline, both light and heavy, has innumerable uses in marlinspike work, and of course there are synthetic alternatives. Sail Hardware Spares are needed for whatever hardware your sails, and canvas goods use: thimbles, fasteners, slides, etc. That's not true in the case of a sail full of quick- throwaway hardware like squeeze-on hanks and spur-grommets. In that case, one must be prepared to replace all such things with sensible gear before they destroy the sail. Remember, no crimp-on or punch-in stuff; you don't have the tools to install it, and you can't reuse it. Leather On those parts of a sail where chafe is unavoidable, chafing gear, notably leather, has to be replaced. Leather's expensive, but not much is needed. A square foot or two of pliable, well-tanned or even oiled hide is sufficient. In the absence of leather, cloth can be used. ‘The materials you'll need to make the ditty bag are: = I square yard of 13-ounce preshrunk, mildewproofed canvas + spool of three-ply spun polyester sail twine * 1 ball of tarred hemp yacht marline THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE «10 feet of %-inch-diameter manila line «= 4round thimbles with %-inch score «beeswax. Less salty equivalents to tarred hemp and manila are permissible. It's your call. CUTTING, FOLDING, AND MARKING THE CLOTH Do you have the cloth? The pins, pencil, knife or scissors, seam rubber, tape measure, and straight- edge? How’s your work space? Roomy, warm, well- lighted, and tranquil, hopefully? The surface upon which you'll work should be clean, flat, and wooden, but not your prize floor or table. You'll be sticking pins in it. Preparation is as important as anything. Relax. Concentrate. Each step in this kind of work is dependent upon the preceding one, and the final outcome and general ease of completion are greatly affected by thoroughness along the way.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP Lay out the cloth as shown in Figure 1-8. It should be pinned out firmly, square, flat, and lying naturally without distortion. Draw the lines for the walls of the bag as indicated. Mark them dark and identify them as to their future use: fold, cut, or a reference sew-to line. The upper part of the bag, when folded over, will become a hem or tabling. The side seam and patches also get hemmed under—all exposed cut cloth must be hemmed in order to prevent unraveling. Both the bottom of the bag wall and the patches are cut from the piece of cloth in a way that utilizes the nonfraying sel- wage. Next, with a compass, draw the sew-to line and the cut line of the bag bottom. Last to be drawn are the little trapezoidal reinforcement patches. Like any cloth added to a sail in the form of tablings or patches, it must be cut and placed with the same weave or cloth direction as the sailcloth beneath in order to give and take compatibly with the sail body. It should also be made of the same cloth when possible. After you have cut your pieces, you'll find you have cloth left over. Save it. You might want to install pockets in the bag, or retread the seat of your pants someday. Fold and rub down everything well. Then open up the top and bottom of the rectangular side piece and bend one end around to form a cylinder with FIGURE 1-9. the hemmed end lying along the sew-to line (Figure 1-8). Flatten the cylinder now and pin it down firmly with the seam up and the cloth edges aligned. Every inches or so strike-up marksshould be drawn perpendicularly on both the upper and lower cloths across the seww-ro line. The sew-to line guides in maintaining the alignment of the two cloths side to side, and the strike-up marks do the same for the cloths forward and backward. SEWING ‘Welll begin with a few general rules: 1, Almost all sewing is done from one side of the cloth—the top side. Don't push the needle in one side, turn the work over, and then push the needle back through the other side. Ima- gine flip-flopping a large heavy sail enough times to sew a patch that way in the middle of the sail. 'll explain how to manage, in just abit. 2. No knots! They are lumpy and chafe away. With very few exceptions, thread ends are sewn in. 3. No prepunched holes allowed. Your shoulder, arm, fingers, and the sewing palm are what push a clean, sharp needle through even the heaviest of canvas. ‘These things will take some getting used to, and for a time there's likely to be some hardship: sore back, sore hands, blisters, and bloodshed. The Side Seam Your tools and materials should be set up in advance and be accessible. A professional sits on a bench, with thread, wax, fids, etc. at one end. Flat seaming will be your first step in sewing the bag. For a right-handed person, it is performed from right to left. The sailhook (your third hand) is tied to something firm off to the right, while the cloth is held in the left hand, pulling in opposition to the hook.10 Learn to hold the needle correctly from the beginning. The head of the needle should be held firmly with the ring finger against the eye of the seaming palm, and the thumb and index finger holding the needle down near the point (Figure 1-10). The palm and hand become one, and you will keep an almost constant grip on the needle until its final passage through the cloth. Don't insert the needle and then try to push it wobbling through the cloth with your fingers outstretched; you will probably break the needle and you won't have much directional control. With good light in front of you, draw out a length of twine which, when doubled through aNo. 16 needle, will equal just less than the dis- tance from the work to your extended hand. A. longer length of twine, although seeming to save time in making up thread, actually consumes more time since you have to let go of the needle to heave home the stitch. When your needle is threaded, pass the twine over the wax enough times to coat itthoroughly; the two pieces should stick together. The process of sewing the flat stitch twists the thread and can cause it to tangle. You can compen- sate for this in advance of sewing by working a right twist into the thread or, as you sew along, by tum- ing the needle counterclockwise. How do you keep from accidentally sewing the wall of the bag opposite the seam? When you sew, riGuRE 1-10, Holding the needle, THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE the needle is passed down through the folded cloth beneath the seam, then is withdrawn to the point where a sharp tick is heard, indicating that the nee- dle is free of that layer of cloth and ready to pass back up through the upper cloth and the seam at hand. Cloth held across your lap, the upper cloth toward you, sailhook set, seam held in advance with another needle, if necessary, strike-up marks and the sew-to line matching, and your body turned slightly to the left, insert the needle into the lower cloth right alongside the edge of the upper cloth, When it's free from the layer you don't want to sew, change the angle of the needle so it comes back up again through the lower cloth and out the upper cloth, exiting far enough in from the upper cloth edge so that the twine will have a good hold, and slightly farther on down the seam than the point at which the needle entered. How far along, and in depends on the nature of the work. The heavier the work, the farther apart the stitches. Ten to 12 stitches per needle length is a good guide. The twine is pulled on through, sufficiently taut to sink the twine slightly into the cloth, no more. Too much tension and it will pucker, especially on lightweight cloth. Ifyou are seaming synthetic cloth, you should keep in mind that Dacron has no woven selvage; the edge of the cloth has been cut and sealed with ahotknife. Ifyou sew too close to this edge, the seal FIGUREL-11, The flat stitch.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP ll will break and the threads along the edge will unravel. In addition, Dacron is so tightly woven and stable that if your cloth gets puckered in sewing, it will stay that way. You will need to take extra care with your stitch tension to avoid puck- ering, To begin the seam, anchor the tail end of the twine (an inch or so) with the first few stitches (see Figure 1-12; this is known as oversewing), and continue with stitches as consistent as possi- ble with respect to size, angle, and tension. It takes some practice. Keep everything lined up and shift the sailhook along as you go. If you run out of twine, make up a new needleful and resume as shown. At the end of the seam, pass the needle back under the last four stitches. AT FINK Next, turn the bag inside out and sew the other side of the seam in the same manner. Wizards can dispense with sew-to lines and marks, but these references will help you keep the work straight. When the seam is done, go over your work with the seam rubber and rub the stitching and seam down flat. The Tabling With the bag turned back right side out, the top hem, or rolled tabling, is folded under and rubbed down, and the strike-up marks and sew-to line are drawn. The tabling is sewn in the same manner as, the side seam, the only difference being that you can hold the cloth from both sides, thumb on top, fingers inside the bag, and there's no fear of sewing FIGURE 1-12, Oversewing the twine ends12 THE SAILMAKER'S APPRENTICE something besides the tabling (except your fingers). Having circumsewn the bag, rub the tabling down as flat as possible, then divide and mark the circumference into quarters, avoiding the side seam. These quarter points are where the cringles will eventually be placed and, as in sailmaking, they need to have reinforcement patches. The Patches Patches provide extra strength through more lay- ers; they are designed to distribute strain in the appropriate direction. Cut, fold under, and rub down the four little patches. With the bag pinned down flat, pin down a patch so its centerline is on the quarter point mark and its top edge (which is the unfolded sel- vage edge) is flush with the top edge of the bag. Draw the sew-to lines (by tracing around the patch), and also the strike-up marks. Label the position and the patch, then repeat for the remaining patches. Continuing with the same flat stitch you used for the side seam and the tabling, sew on each patch. You will be confronted with changes in direction, some awkwardness in holding it, and the fraying of the patch corners. As you approach each corner, tuck it under with the needle’s point and sew over it so that nothing is left to fray and look unsightly. The Sticking Stitch The next stitch, called the sticking stitch, is easy and is used in this case to anchor the layers of the tabling, bag, and patches so they don’t shift around while the top edge of the bag is being roped. This stitch or a similar running stitch can also be used to run a strengthening middle stitch or triple stitch down the middle of a seam. Work from right to left about % inch down from the edge of the bag. Make the stitches farther apart than when seaming, and do not pull them so tightly that the bag edge puckers. The Round Stitch The bag should be looking fairly natty by now, but, of course it’s nota bag yet, just a cylinder. But we're ready to make it into a bag now, by sewing in its, bottom using the round stitch. This stitch has FIGURE1.13. The sticking stitch.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP 13 FIGURE 1-14, The round stitch. numerous applications that generally involve some sort of seaming or oversewing. As a seaming stitch, it is very strong but leaves cut cloth edges exposed. That’ all right though, on something like the inside of a bag. In the oversewing fashion, leech edges are stitched and cut edges are prevented from unraveling. This stitch is sewn from left to right, with the sailhook on the right. Normally, this is one of the simplest of stitches, but sewing around in a circle makes it a little more difficult because you have to keep refolding and lining up as you go. Folding well in advance and having dark sew-to lines will help, as will marking quarter points on both the bottom and the lower edge of the bag cylinder. With the bag inside out and the bottom placed with its folded hem out, hold the two with the lines matching and the bag bottom away from you. You will use the same thread and needle as in the pre- vious work. Oversewing the thread end to begin, around you go evenly, 10 to 12 stitches per needle length, but with comparatively little tension. When the two layers are later spread open, you don't want ahard ridge remaining. FiGuRE 1-18. Round seaming the bottom (bag inside out). With the completion of this step, the bag may be likened to a sail that has been completed to the point of being ready for the “finishwork”: roping, rings, hardware, and chafing gear. This is a good point to stop, relax, reflect on what's been accomplished so far, and prepare for the work to come. How do you feel? So frustrated that you're ready to hoist a broom to the masthead and heave the palm overboard? Never let your mother say she had a “jibber.” The ditty bag is for Jearning—it doesn't have to be a masterpiece. Is your stitching correct and uniform? Are the seams, tablings, and patches flat and placed cor- rectly? Does the bag seem strong? Emulation of the tried and true is the objective, but it doesn't have to be perfect the first time around.14 THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE For the finishwork to come, you'll need the rop- ing palm, fids, the knife, an additional 8 feet of Y-inch manila line, marline, wax, sail twine, and one sharp and one dulled No. 16 needle. You'll also need a mallet or block of wood to use in stretching the cringles, and if you want a Turk’s head slider, you'll need 3 feet of braided cord. Practicing in advance will help you make a neater bag, and studying the handwork on well- made sails will give you a standard of comparison for your work. FINISHWORK Rings There are other means, but most frequently things are attached to sails through holes reinforced with 1 3. FIGURE1-16. A peniny-size marline grommet. Begin with an overhand knot, tuck the ends as shown, tie second overhand knot, tuck the ends once more, and trim. ‘metal or rope rings. Rope rings, called grommets, are laid up from a single strand of line, the size of which depends on the nature of the work. ‘The rings (or eyelets) on the ditty bag are small, so the rope grommets will be worked out of tarred marline as shown. Eight penny-size (O.D.) grom- mets will be needed, uniform in diameter and even in layup. Waxing the marline makes it more workable. This is where you first get to use the small fd, in forming and rounding the grommets. Note the terminating overhand knot, which has the two meeting strands worked into the lay together. Subsequent tucks may be made in a vari- ety of ways, but in the case of these small grom- mets (which will be sewn in) it is not necessary to do the kind of finishing you'd do in a large unsewn rope grommet. One more tuck for each strand is sufficient. Worked Eyelets Now you are ready to sew the little grommets into the locations where the cringles will later be “stuck.” Eyelets or anchor holes are used to distrib- ute strain over a larger part of the sail, or bag, in this case. Their configuration might vary from a single eyelet to a complex multi-eyelet fanlike assembly in which all are joined so they work together to share the load. This ditty bag uses the configuration of two eyelets side by side. ‘The technique for sewing rings or eyelets is basically the same, regardless of the size of the ring. The grommets for the bag eyelets are placed on the patches so that their outer drawn circles will just meet at the centerline of the patch, and at the same time are % inch down from the bag’s upper edge. Draw circles both inside and outside the ring, taking care to make them round. Mark them so that you will know which ring belongs to which circle. Next, cut out the inner circles and draw identical outside circles on the other side of the cloth. These circles will guide you in sewing. Use the same size thread and needle as in the stitching. The grommet, being soft, might require fidding as you go to keep it round. Sew in all eight eyelets as follows:A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP 15 FIGURE 1.17. Sewing the eyelets. Copyrighted material16 THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE FIGURE 1-18, Seizing the anchor holes. ‘Sewing is always begun on the side away from the strain, so as to be less likely to pull out. Gener- ally, this means on the side of the ring away from the center of sail. In this bagit means at the top of the ring. Holding the bag with the beginning point of the ring uppermost, push the needle through at that point, angling slightly ahead and outward, and pull the thread through, except for the last inch or so. Pass the needle back up through the hole in the bag and through the ring (or grom- met), which has been placed into position. A stitch is then taken through the same spot you first sewed and then hove home; this holds the ring firmly against the cloth. The little thread tail is oversewn with the subsequent stitches. Working counterclockwise, you continue on around the ring. Even stitches that cover the ring are of suffi- cient tension to sink the ring into the cloth. You want stitches that radiate smoothly from the imagined center of the ring, crossing the ring on a perpendicular rather than pinwheeling obli- quely across. Pinwheeling is controlled by the relationship between where the needle enters and exits in a sequence of stitches. This is governed by the angle at which the needle is inserted and the space between the stitches. For these little rings, keep the stitches at least is inch apart so that you do not weaken the cloth. It's a litle tricky to develop a consistent technique, especially with rings of varying sizes, but once mastered it is not easily forgotten. To finish, the thread is passed up through the last stitch prior to heaving it home. Finally, the thread is passed under the last three stitches on the back side and cut off. All the unraveling cloth in the hole should be covered, and the ring should be smoothed and rounded out with the fid. Seizing the Eyelets To further reinforce these four pairs of eyelets, each pair is seized together as, shown in Figure 1-18, using the same thread. Itis. better to use many turns of a light thread than a few of a heavier one; iflaid up with equal tension, all the parts will do their share,A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP 17 The Rope Grommet If we were making a sail and had the rings all worked and seized, we'd be at the point of roping its edges, which indeed we're about to do with the bag, except that the bag's “boltrope” is a rope grommet, which has to be made by you. Grommets are made up of a single strand of rope obtained by unlaying a length about 3% times the circumfer- ence of the finished grommet (Figure 1-19). ‘Take your 10-foot piece of Y-inch manila and unlay it into three strands, one of which you will use to fashion your rope grommet. The inner diameter of the grommet should be equal to the outer diameter of the bag lip. Not quite as easy as it looks, the making of rope grommets requires careful laying up in order to get. them the right size with an even lay and awell-faired splice. Rolling the final tucks underfoot will help in the fairing in. Ifthe finished grommet takes on a per- sistent figure-eight shape, there's nothing to do but to try again. Notice that the way in which the strands are tucked maintains the three-strand configuration of the line; this is important for roping. Any fuzzy fibers jutting out from the successfully completed grommet can be singed away with a match. Roping Why bother? The edges of sails generally have to be reinforced so they won't overstretch and tear. Rop- ingis the traditional method of providing this extra strength. In addition, fullness can be sewn into a sail to a certain extent by gathering slack cloth into the boltrope stitches. Furthermore, roping pro- vides lateral reinforcement by helping withstand the strains imposed on all the rings at various points along a sail’s perimeter. The art of roping involves not only the skill of sewing, but a percep- tion of the relationship between the rope and cloth18 based on knowledge of their individual character- istics. This ability comes with experience and from a measure of intuition. ‘When a sail is roped, the rope is held closest to the worker and against the port side of the sail. On the ditty bag, itis held on the outside. Normally, a sew-to line is drawn on the rope to ensure its going, on without twisting, and strike-up marks are made on both the sail and the rope so that the two have the desired relationship when sewn together. It THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE FIGURE1-19. The rope grommet, also helps to temporarily seize the rope to the sail at intervals. For the ditty bag, the rope grommet should be seized to the bag lip at quarter points and these seizings removed as you sew. There are three ways of affecting how much cloth gets sewn to a given length of rope: First, bending the work away from you as you sew adds cloth. Bending it toward you makes for more rope and less cloth; this is undesirable since it is the rope that is supposed to be controlling the cloth. FIGURE 1-20. Bending rope and cloth toward you gives slack rope. Bending the work away {from you puts in slack cloth with tight roping.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP FIGURE 1-21, Roping the bag. Second, the amount of cloth taken up in each stitch can be varied. And third, how tightly the stitch is pulled or hove can be varied; the tighter the stitch, the more cloth is taken up as it is sunk between the rope strands. Ablunted needle (No. 16) with a suitable length of your twine (which is knotted at the end this time) is pushed cleanly between the rope strands and out through the cloth. Sewing from left to right, itis convenient in the roping of the bag to attach the sailhook in an eyelet off to the right. The basic roping stitch is augmented at all beginnings, ends, splices, cringles, seams, and places of addi- tional strain with a cross-stitch, which crosses back over the strand just passed under, then under again, and out slightly farther along. When fin- ished, the thread is knotted on the cloth side. Cringles With the completion of the roping, cringles and round thimbles may be stuck (installed) at each pair of eyelets. Cringles are laid up from a single strand of leftover boltrope. The initial size of the cringle is such that it must be stretched to permit the insertion of the round thimble, and so the sub- sequent shrinkage will inextricably hold it in place. To start, take one strand of leftover boltrope at SSSESSSSSSS SSS By 4 ~ least four times as long as the circumference of the finished cringle and lay it up carefully and tightly as shown (Figure 1-22), so that at the completion of the second step the open space between the top of the boltrope and the inside of the cringle should be half the diameter of your thimble. There are sev- eral ways of finishing off a cringle other than the one shown here. In one method the final strands are tucked over, one under two, as in the grommet, until they meet at the crown inside the cringle, where in a full-scale cringle on a sail they would be tied in an overhand knot and the ends left until after the fitting of the thimble, then cut off. The small size of these bag cringles makes the over- hand knot optional. Mark on the fid a point corresponding to the outer diameter of the thimble, and with the bag. roping held up, drive the cringle down over the fid to the marked line and let it sit there for a few min- utes. Then, with the thimble close at hand and your mallet ready, invert the fid and knock the ccringle off. Now, like greased lightning, with the roping down, tap the thimble into position before the cringle shrinks up again. If you miss the boat and the cringle shrinks up before you can fit the thimble, refid the cringle and try again. The thim- ble should be so tightly held that you can't even20 THE SAILMAKER'S APPRENTICE “The. PMIsHED Cemige 5. READY roe je FIGURE 1-22. Sticking cringle.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP 21 2, REMOVING “THE. FIO B. Kicoun INTHE, THIMELE > FIGURE 1-23, Installing a thimble. rotate it. As in much of this kind of work, there are no surefire formulas and you will have to develop afeel fort. Sailmaker’s Eyesplice The lanyard, formed of two pieces of line, must now be spliced to each cringle. The sailmaker’s eyesplice is employed for two instructive reasons and one practical one. First, the tapering of strands is an important technique for terminating roping ina gradual manner and for fairing-in splices, par- ticularly splices that will be sewn [Link]. Splices of this sort have the strands tucked with the lay so that the strands are worked in nearly imperceptibly and maintain the easily sewn three-strand config- uration. Practically speaking, as far as the bag is concerned, the evenly tapered splice will enable the Turks head slider to slide farther down.22 THE SAILMAKER'S APPRENTICEA DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP FIGURE-25, Tapering the strands, Tapering Cutanother 8-foot piece of line in half and whip all four ends 4 inches up as shown in Figure 1-24. Beginning with one of the ends, unlay the three strands. Taking one strand, unlay its yarns. Now, one yarn at a time, very carefully scrape the fibers down with the knife so that the yarn tapers gradually to nothing. Wax it, and twist itback up as it was. Repeat this technique with the remaining yarn as uniformly as possible. The yarns (text continued on page 27)24 THE SAILMAKER'S APPRENTICE FIGURE 126. Sailmaker’s eyesplice. The eye is worked around a cringle (cringle omitted in drawings for clarity). At step 4, turn the splice over and tuck strand A. All strands are then tucked with the lay, over one and under two. When made with the strands tapered, the finished splice appears as in step 5.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP FIGURE 1-27, Serving and seizing the lanyard eye. Serve against the lay (1), then make a flat seizing (on the throat of the eye (24).26 THE SAILMAKER'S APPRENTICE Figure 1.28, The three-strand Turk’s head. Rotate the knot toward you as you progress. When end B reaches the beginning point, it continues around again alongside itself through the knot.A DITTY BAG APPRENTICESHIP 27 are then laid back up into a tapered strand and the whole process repeated with the two other strands. All four ends must be readied in this way before you begin splicing. If it were a rattail to be roped to a sail, you'd lay the three strands back up into a tapered tail, which would then be sewn to the sail. The splice is worked around the cringle as shown, Slightly unlaying the strand as tucks are taken will help in fairing them in well with the strands of the standing part. A small whip- ping will hold the very ends. Some accuracy is required so as to get lanyard legs of equal length. Finishing the Lanyard After splicing, the two legs are joined, middled, and a hand-size eye formed. The eye is served with marline and a flat seizing clapped on. Finally, a three-strand Turk’s head, made from any light cord, makes a slider to close the bag. There. The bag is done, ready to receive all the tools that made it and to store them inside for future use. Initials can be embroidered on the out- side, pockets installed, whatever you like from here on out. It’s your bag, they're your tools, and your hands brought the ditty bag to life. And if you think the bag was a lot of work, just think of how much more a sailmaker has to deal with. It is hard work bringing sails to life and keeping them seaworthy and dependable. Wing, cloth, and self-reliance. You've begun.2 wy Sailing, Hulls, and Sails AYSAILING IS RELATIVELY EASY on a sail. ‘Adequate and reliable reefing should not be neglected, but generally light construction is advis- able. I once built a suit of sails for an 18-foot Wianno Junior knockabout in a manner better suited to a 40-foot bluewater cruiser. The result was immortal sails that were useless in the usual daysailing conditions, and only came into their own in a gale. So as not to have made a complete waste of it, [took the boat out in a gale. The sails did fine, but the boat and I, and my terrified crew, had less than a delightful time. And daysailing is supposed to be delightful. What's the point of going toall the fuss ifit's no fun? Might as well have a powerboat. To maximize the happily entertaining side of daysailing, sails need appropriate construction and controlsto permit their shape to be adjusted to prevailing condi- tions—usually in sheltered waters, with relatively light airs and fair weather. Daysailing sails should be easily bent on and removed, easily set, light and pleasant to handle, and as simpleas possible. At the opposite end of the spectrum, voyaging or cruising under sail imposes distinct require- ‘ments of its own. Limited stowage space means a small sail inventory, which in turn cals for versatile working sails. Each working sail, which is a com- promise to some extent, can perform well in a wide 28 range of conditions and will be augmented by a small inventory of light- and heavy-air auxiliary sails. A small inventory usually means one of each sail in the rig. A small crew necessitates manage- able, easily handed sails—even with mechanical sail-handling gear, in the event the machinery fails. Depending on the extent of the voyage, the sails should be constructed with tools and techniques the voyaging sailor can use on board to effect repairs. Coincidentally, those techniques are also the most durable, resulting in less repair and main- tenance in the first place. Economy is of great importance to voyagers: economy in space, funds, fuel, and physical exer- tion. Sails playabigrole in shipboard economy, and should be cost-effective in every respect to be of, maximum benefit. The wind is free when it blows, but the harnessing of that energy hasa price tag. What does the voyager care about the look of a sail? Color is important, in that dark colors aren't so reflective of harsh sunlight. Yet light colors are more visible at night, and bright colors are more visible in fog, rain, and against a wave-tossed sea. Colors in general help sailcloth resist ultraviolet deterioration (while absorbing more heat). Gay color combinations provide identity and can lift the spirits on a dreary haul, Beyond color, the aes- thetic appeal and reassurance of high-quality sail-SAILING, HULLS, AND SAILS 29 work is a source of pride and comfort to the voy- aging sailor. Cruising sails have to withstand pro- longed exposure to the elements as well as long- term damp, dark, cold, wet, and hot storage. These considerations are of greater or less importance depending on the length of the voyage. Bluewater sailing is the most demanding. Long, hard use of sails, infrequent ports of call, limited resources, lack of professional sail services, sur- vival conditions, and fair weather punctuated by foul call for good sails indeed. Coastal cruising imposes less stringent but sim- ilar sail requirements, depending on the coast, the sailor's budget, and the size of the boat. Gunk- holing resembles daysailing in some respects, but in many ways is more akin to voyaging. Gunk- holing sails, at least in temperate climates, won't receive nearly the beating from the sun that tropi- cal or bluewater sails must withstand. Gunkhole to gunkhole is a small voyage, relatively sheltered, which is some justification for a light sail material but no reason to compromise strength and perfor- mance. A gunkholer has frequent need to sail off a lee shore, and a shoal-draft gunkholer may need multiple and reliable reefs in the working sails. River and lake cruising runs the gamut. The Great Lakes resemble coastal cruising, but cruising small lake or river is more like daysailing. The key factors are the length of the voyage, the conditions anticipated, and the location. There is no point in making a long-lasting, survival-oriented voyaging sail for a boat that’s going on short, local camping voyages, but all purposeful voyages of any duration share basic considerations of economy. Ease of handling is of greater importance in the flukey, confined, unpredictable conditions found in sweetwater sailing. Sails for classic boats deserve a little discussion. There is an aesthetic and functional conflict between the design, materials, aesthetics, and rig of a classic boat and contemporary sail materials and construction. On the other hand, the boat's cost and maintenance may be lowered and its per- formance enhanced if synthetic sails are bent. So choices must be made. To the purist, who is resigned to maintenance and may not be con- cerned about competition, putting a plasi ‘on a wooden boat is heresy; only a natural-fiber sail will do. The look, feel, and sound of the sails must be consistent with the rest of the boat. The purists may not be making as big a sacrifice in perfor- mance as you might think, because their classic rigs work optimally with natural-fiber sails. The Chinese lug rig comes to mind. It can be argued that while sails have continued to evolve, the Chi- nese lug and other rigs reached their limits, and the imposition of one evolutionary entity upon another is dysfunctional, or at best ugly. Many classic-boat owners don't give a hoot whether their sails are consistent in appearance with their boat, but there are many who do. The middle ground for these sailors is lower- maintenance (not maintenance-free), more stable synthetic sails that simulate the appearance and employ the sailmaking techniques of natural-fiber sails. This simulation is not merely cosmetic, but also more durable than off-the-rack synthetic sails, though the added strength is more often than not superfluous. Even the Coast Guard barque Eagle has dispensed with traditionally constructed and finished sails, and that's some test. Alll in all, unless authenticity is an absolute priority, the needs of the classic-boat owner might be best served by a traditionally made sail using synthetic materials WHERE ONE SAILS The place and season of sailing have considerable bearing on the making of sails. In this chapter we merely outline the considerations; in later chapters ‘we return to the materials and constructions these considerations demand. Sails to be handed safely and comfortably in the cold must be soft, whether synthetic or natural Natural fibers hold more water and will freeze more solidly if wet. In an area of heavy and frequent rainfall, one must be concerned about the weight of wet sailswhen sailing and mildew when the sails are stowed. Exposure to the sun—ultraviolet rays in particu lar—is detrimental to all sailcloth in all zones, but particularly in the tropics, where in a matter of months exposed cloth and stitching may be haz ardously weakened. Ultraviolet deterioration is insidious, like the work of a powder beetle in the ‘wooden legs of a chair. The chair looks and seems sound until you sit on it. Sun-rotten saileloth to the undiscerning eye seems fine, too. The choice of an appropriate material for tropi- determining smal-boat sail area? power: SAIL ALCHEMY Q: As a boatbuilder I am occasionally asked to convert @ boat to sail. Is there o formula for ‘A: No formula, but there is a ratio for small boats that suggests an appropriate sail area: Sail area (in square feet) divided by the displacement (including average crew and gear, in cubic feet—ie., pounds divided by 64, the weight of a cubic foot of seawater) to the two-thirds SAIDisp:” Figures range from a “low” 14 or less to a “high” 20+. The amount of sail a boat can safely carry depends on the stability provided by hull form, ballast (fixed, movabl ballast placement. Further considerations are the rig type, anticipated sailing conditions, intended use of the boat, and needs and abilities of the sailor. Successful, proven small-boat sail plans are a good guide for the sail and rig specifications of a conversion or new design. THE SAILMAKER'S APPRENTICE cal sailing is important, and so is the construc- tion; some construction techniques fall apart faster in the sun than others. Sail fittings corrode faster in the tropics, and the high humidity and rainfall of the rainy season pose organic rot problems. Of course, tempestuous regions of the globe call for stouter sails that can drive the boat in a lumpy sea but are not overpowering, Squally areas and known gauntlets like the Gulf of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico beg easily doused or reefed sails that may be quickly transformed for heavy going. and live), andSAILING, HULLS, AND SAILS 31 Doldrums and calms are as detrimental to sails in their own way as any storm—perhaps more so. Slatting and slamming make for incessant chafe and brutal stress. These destructive forces can be countered by building a sail with some give and elasticity in its material, construction, and means of attachment. ‘Trade wind sailing, while tranquil in some respects, places strain on and exposes certain areas of the sail over extended periods of time. Chafe is the big troublemaker, and in anticipation of this, chafing gear should be built into a sail where it ‘comes in contact with other parts of the boat. No matter where or how you sail, try to antici- pate the temperature, weather, and wind condi- tions you will encounter, and choose your sails accordingly. With appropriate materials and con- structions, your sails will require less maintenance, will be easier and safer to handle, and will have a longer life expectancy. ERGONOMICS A sailor hampered by an infirmity has special needs in order to maximize his or her abilities, and a sailmaker needs to take this into account. A monoped, ablind sailor, a deaf sailor, a short sailor, a frail sailor—any relative diminishment of sail- handling ability can be compensated to some extent in the design and making of the sails. An infirm sailor might well be reluctant to make fre- ‘quent sail changes on a heaving foredeck. A single forgiving sail with a wide wind range might be more appropriate. (Along these lines, within cer- tain boat and rig types, I suggest there are novice, intermediate, and advanced sails appropriate for a particular sailor's intentions and ability.) Sailors have all sorts of needs in relation to their bodies, minds, abilities, finances, and intentions. Sometimes sailors aren't aware of their needs, much less the implications for choosing Mr. and ‘Mrs. Right Sail. Buta sailor and sailmaker working together can create a safe, manageable, and suc- cessful sail. THE HULL Itis imprudent to jump directly from ways of sail- ing into sail design and making. We should look at hull form first. It matters little that superb sails for a particular type of sailing have been created if they are then placed upon a hull designed and built for another kind of sailing altogether. In this discussion, I borrow in part from Ted Brewer's book titled Ted Brewer Explains Sailboat Design, an excellent distillation of sailboat design considerations presented in clear, concise terms, with a necessary but not overwhelming analysis of, technical data. ‘There are three basic hull shapes, the simplest being flat-bottomed hulls. The most basic of these is the scow or punt type, while skiffs, sharpies, and dories exemplify the remaining flat-bottomed types and are distinguished by their pointed bows. Of course there are scads of flat-bottomed designs, most of which are selected by a sailor for their shoal draft, carrying capacity, speed (sharpies), and seaworthiness (dories), among other reasons. What does this mean to the sail- maker? Some of these flat-bottomed boats are particularly weatherly, stable, and fast, and all will carry leeboards, centerboards, or daggerboards. Windward ability will be enhanced by a keel, but then the invaluable shoal draft is lost. So we see ow sails of comparatively full shape. Generally used inshore, the sails on a flat-bottomed hull needn't be stoutly constructed, but efficient, func- tional reefs are essential to the safety of a capsiz~ able hull. The V-bottomed hull is seemingly a derivation of the flat-bottomed hull, modified for greater sea- worthiness and carrying capacity. Sailwise these hulls may in general be distinguished from the flat- bottoms by their decrease in initial stability, neces- sitating a low rig, easily reefed. The type is fast and perhaps somewhat more weatherly in a chop than the flat bottoms, On thewhole, differencesin sailsfor V-bottomed versus flat-bottomed hulls will depend on the boat and its use.32 THE SAILMAKER’S APPRENTICE from measurements of the spars and rigging. FINDING SAIL AREA Q: What are the formulas used to measure the reefed ond full areas of a sail? ‘A: Except in the estimation of sailcloth, sail area is usually calculated by the measurement of triangles, with the exclusion of roaches and hollows. For an extreme roach, calculus can be used, but it is nearly as accurate to break the area up into triangles and proceed geomet- tically. When a sail has a tack angle of greater or less than 90°, a measurement called the luff perpendicular (LP) serves as the height of the triangle; the luff is the base. Given a tack angle of 90°, the foot of the sail and the LP are the same. ‘The procedure for determining sail area will vary depending on what measurements are available and whether they are being obtained from a scale plan, from the sails themselves, or See also Figure 2-1, Figure 4-10, and Chapter 6. Aworking skipjack, for example, required pow- erful, large, low sails to drag the oyster beds of ‘Chesapeake Bay. It needed to work the wind suffi- ciently to enable crossing back and forth over the beds on close parallel courses for a clean sweep of the area. Reefing was essential for stability, given the hull type and the large expanse of canvas. Hard service and exposure to the elements called for sails as durable as the stout hulls they propelled, even with the installation of auxiliary engines. The sails of a skipjack yacht, by contrast, need not be as powerful and are designed to maximize the speed and windward ability of the hull, mini- mize heeling, reduce weather helm, and permit some gleeful sailing in a fresh breeze before it is time to tuck in a reef. This brings us to round-bottomed hulls. Ted Brewer prefers the term round-bilged to round- bottomed, because many round-bottomed hulls are actually quite flat in section (with little or no deadrise) but nonetheless have a distinct round turn to the bilge. Round-bilged hulls are of two basic varieties: the U-shaped section one sees in light-displacement craft from canoes to ultra- light ocean racers, and the Y-section generally reserved for moderate- to heavier-displacement boats. With some exceptions, the U-sectioned hulls are thrilling speed and sport sailers. Speed and weatherliness are likely the most significant aspects of this hull type, which influences sail design. Certainly it is a faster and more weatherly section than the previously mentioned forms;