Project: Dinghy Sail Making

For PIPPI's and LONGSTOCKING's sailing rigs, J. modified a tarp sail plan he came across online. We've made tarp sails before. Our experience has been that they have been quite long lasting for the use we give them. This time, however, we decided to use white tarps rather than blue for a more sale fabric quality. 

First J. used a drafting program to draft the online sail. Then he changed the dimension of scale to our best advantage. One of the tricks was to create a sailing rig that would fit within the dinghies. We didn't want any rig components traveling (tied down) on the deck of MERGANSER. 

Borrowing a church basement, we laid out the edges, marked the straight lines, added the curves for rounding (either convex or concave), then cut to shape.

Next, we cut the reinforcing patches and edge work (using double-sided tape we happened to have).

Then it was off to sewing!

By the way, we used the first sail (pre-sewed) as a pattern for the second.