Anyone out there in Minnesota know of a reasonablly priced sail repair shop? i found the first rip in my 30 some odd year old sails

Sequel Enterprises
6298 Bury Dr.
Eden Prairie, Minn.
(952) 975-1980

Southwest of I-494 and Hwy. 62 (the Crosstown)

I think you got your moneys worth on those sails. Check out ebay or some other location, get you another set... better yet how about a new boat????? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

You've shown you take care of things so the cost per year will be quite low.

Clayton

Blake:

Chip builds some sweet sails. Look at the SuperR.

http://www.whirlwindsails.com/index1.htm

Doug

My guess is Blake LOVES his old sails (and the rest of the old Hobie). For $40 to $60 he can probably get that old dottering sail back in action. Sure, he can get a set of new sails. But, if he does get new sails, I bet he will still consider repairing the old ones, just for the memories.

but new sails are sooo nice

why would you suggest i get a new boat? mine is a classic?

You probably couldn't tell but my tongue was planted firmly while saying that. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> I'm a firm believer if it ain't broke don't fix it. Of course if I had an extra $15K lying around a new boat wouldn't be bad!!!

Clayton

Blake,

If Clayton want a firmly planted tongue, we'll have to invite him to Minnesota in January, and tell him to put his tongue on a metal pole!

You're right Jeff,

Clayton next time your up here in say Feb. we can show you a sport you might not be familiar with called "ice boating" you'll get a kick out of it. if i had the funds i would get a newer boat, but i dont. and the old girl is still stiff and responsive. besides the rip is only about an inch long and i want to have the batten pockets resown

What kind of ice boat do you have? What about a pic? I have almost completed an "Ice Flyer". Got the design off the net. I have wheels and blades for it. Seems like it would be a hoot. This would make a good thread in the open forum.

If the rift is not too large, it can probably be fixed by yourself on a domestic sewing machine. Get some matching dacron material, thread, basting tape and needles from Sailrite.com. You will also find directions there on how to do it, but it is quite simple. Just make sure the area with the rift is laid flat on a flat surface. Pin it to the floor and use basting tape to glue a patch over the rip. Depending on where the rip is, overlap 2-4cm on each side of the rip. Stitch with a zig-zag seam two times around the outer edge, trim eventual excess materials away and you are good to go. The hardest part is setting up the sewing machine, but that is really not very hard if you follow the guidelines online at Sailrite.com.
I am sure you know that sails have a performance life and a mechanical life. The performance life is not too long, after a while the cloth stretches and you get a sail with too much draft positioned too far aft. This hurts both pointing and speed. Mechanical life is much longer, especially so with dacron sails, but eventually the resin and fibers will wear and your sails literally fall apart. You might well have reached your sails mechanical life, so if you fix the rift, a new one will come pretty soon.


A ice-sailing thread would be cool on the open forum. We had one last year, but it never took off. I suppose most of the forum users live somewhere the water never becomes solid <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

i dont actually have an ice boat but a friend of mine does. thank you for the info about repairing at home thats probally what i will do.

Price out the repair at Sequel first. Three years ago, they made three small repairs to my main, including replacing a batten pocket and repairing worn spots on my luff tape. It came to a little over $40. I sent some one else there about two years ago, and they were thrilled with the place. If you can repair it yourself, that's great. But if you spend two days finding materials, what is YOUR time worth?

I do stuff like this myself for fun, and to save some money. I enjoy doing it, whereas I dont enjoy working extra hours to finance my hobbies. It is also a real learning experience.
I have seen quite some discussions on finding an extra job vs. building things yourself. If one puts a price on off work hours, there is not much worth doing yourself. I refuse to think that way, working to earn money is well and good but building things yourself is also a rewarding experience. Not to mention that the parts you do yourself can be customized and of higher quality as you get better at it.

There is also a family side to this homebuildt vs. work extra hours. If you do it yourself, you can do it at home and be available for your family, or even involve your family in it. I attached a picture where our youngest daughter is 'helping' me assemble a new jib <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> (wife made a veto on spi-work in the living room after we buildt a new Tornado spi there. Too noisy and too much cloth).

How about another caption contest?

"Don't sew your thumb into the sail Dad!"

It is usually more like "Oh, did I change any settings on the machine" or "how much thread is there on one spool". Good to have photos so we dont forget such moments.

Sorry guys, I'm not much for being cold! Ice boating seems like a hoot though! Hmmm lets see, yep I think I still have a coat... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> We don't use them much here!

Back to the sail issue, I've had my Genoa restitched and they put a line in to tighten the foot and it only cost aro $50 from Sabre, pretty reasonable. I'm sure most sail lofts will be comparable.

Clayton

Rolf:

I agree with you to a certain point. Its fun to do it yourself, (especially if you are saving money). But, if you have to chase parts all over town, that's boring. I figure he needs a replacement batten pocket;-that's a trip to the Hobie dealer (that's always fun!) Now, the dealer probably has some white sail cloth, which is fine for the luff tape, but its unlikely he has colored sail cloth. Now, you look on the internet to see if you can order colored sail cloth. Hobie doesn't have any , but the recent production colors. (No luck there.) So now, you start searching other marine suppliers, but its hard to tell from the web sites, if the colors match. Now, you look in the yellow pages for local places that sell colored dacron. Most marine stores cater to stink boats and can't help you. They refer you to the Hobie dealer you already checked with. Now, you look in the yellow pages for textile dealers and find they don't have the textiles you need. While paging through the yellow pages, you discover sail lofts are actually listed in the yellow pages. You call one, and they say they are willing to see if they can match your colors. You bring in your mainsail to them and they say, YES, we have some textile that is a pretty close match and will be glad to sell some to you. Then they also offer to repair your sails for $40. By now, you are tired of running around and just want it done. So you leave your sails, and its done 3 days later.

Colored dacron?

http://www.sailmakerssupply.com/Store_Pages/Colored_Dacron.html