Consider that most new spis are glued today, with only the first meter or so of the main radial seams stitched. As long as the spi is clean (use a hose with freshwater to clean salt from the rifts) and dry, the tape will last as long as the rest of the chute. The exception is if the rifts are in areas with very high shear loads. Then stitching might be a good idea. Eg. if there is a rift in the area where a patch ends, along luff/leech tapes or along the horizontal broadseams. If you are going to stitch two layers of spi-tape, spray both thread, needle, bobbinhouse and bobbing with silicone spray for each bobbin used. If your machine starts to clog with glue, you will have a hard time cleaning it and making it stitch properly again.
If you are in doubt, post some photos of the spi hoisted and circle the areas with rifts.
Do the documentation for the tape you want to use say anything about cloth weight of the ripstop used in it? If it's extra light, doing both sides can be a good move (became a bit uncertain wether there might be different types of spi tape?). The glue will hold tough, just take care to let the spi dry after use. We even used duct tape in a pinch once, and it held up too well. The duct tape was so much stronger than the spi-cloth, that the spi stretched around the tape and ruined the shape..

I must have heard the term Frankenchute used somewhere, but I dont remember where. I certainly did not invent it.


Jake. Picture is of a Tornado (obviously) with a Marstrøm mast, which are notorious for breaking under the new rig according to popular belief. Look at how far out the traveller is, then look at the twist in the mainsail and how much sheet is out. Amazing.. Granted Urban and Helmuth are lightweights, but I dont think I would dare to let out the mainsheet that far even with a sturdier mast. What do you think?

The spi in the picture won the nationals. They were the only boat not to have at least one DNC or DNF due to breakages. We only sailed 5 out of 8 races. Learnt a lesson about maintenance and replacing dogdy gear <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />