Sabrina's Sail Loft is open

Distant Drum actually has two sets of sails. The primary head sail had two small rips in 2007 and major shredding of the sacrificial UV. We took it home for repair. Turns out the UV strip was applied with with adhesive that was a real bitch to get off. I yanked it off in small patches and got it folded up in time for the holiday season that year. "I'll do the actual repair in the spring." Yeah right!

That was spring 2008. Summer 08 found us using the original head sail. It worked just fine. However by the end of the season, it too was in need of repair. "I'll wait until the holidays are over. Setting up Sabrina's Sail Loft involves taking over most of the basement on a semi-permanent basis. "I'll wait until we get back from our sailing trip to Roatan." "I get started on the repairs after we complete our Coastal Navigation class." And so the excuses went. But now the weather is finally warming and we can start sailing soon....except we don't have a working head sail. Time for me to get busy.

I did some warm up canvas repair on our sail cover as some stitching was pulling out. Then I moved on to the older head sail. It primarily needed replacement stitches and a small repair along the leech line. Five broken needles later I have completed all but 2" that will have to be hand stitched.
Yesterday was spent fixing the helm cover for some sailing friends and pondering the best way to repair the rips in our primary head sail as well as replace the entire UV. I haven't yet decided if I am going to replace it with adhesive backed Dacron or Sunbrella. I have done some web searching and plan to read up on repairs in "The Complete Guide to Sail Care & Repair" Next order of business will be to place an order with Sailrite. On the plus side, I was able to take the original head sail up to the boat on Saturday and go for a delightful sail with ESS Kim.